EISA is the biggest and, at nearly 40 years, the oldest general consumer-electronics awards association in the world; its members include 50 special-interest magazines in over 23 European countries and, now, the US, Canada, India, and Australia. Through its annual Awards program,…
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In 2017, Stereophile was accepted into the Expert Imaging and Sound Association (EISA—the E back then stood for European), as the exclusive US member of the EISA's Hi-Fi Expert Group. (At the same time, our sister magazine Sound & Vision was inducted as the exclusive US member of the HT Video Expert Group.)
The following awards were presented in the non-HiFi categories:
HOME THEATRE AUDIO EXPERT GROUP
EISA HOME THEATRE AMPLIFIER 2018–2019
Denon AVC-X8500H
EISA HOME THEATRE RECEIVER 2018–2019
Pioneer VSX-933
EISA HOME THEATRE SPEAKER SYSTEM 2018–2019
KEF Q Series
EISA BEST BUY HOME THEATRE SPEAKER SYSTEM 2018–2019
Jamo S 809 HCS / S 810 SUB / S 8 ATM
EISA HOME THEATRE IN-WALL SPEAKER 2018–2019
Focal 300IWLRC6 / 300IW6
EISA SOUNDBAR 2018–2019
LG SK10Y
EISA BEST BUY SOUNDBAR 2018–2019
Polk…
Jim Austin returned to the Apple HomePod in September 2018 (Vol.41 No.9):
When I reviewed Apple's HomePod smart speaker for the August 2018 issue, I found Apple's virtual assistant, Siri, less helpful than annoying (if also, at times, amusing). I was very impressed, though, with the sound of this unusual speaker, with its upfiring 4" woofer and array of seven horn-loaded tweeter/midrange drivers. Apple was already planning a software update that would allow two HomePods to be used as a stereo pair, and I'd promised a Follow-Up review when they did.
Mere days after submitting that…
Pärt: The Symphonies
Tõnu Kaljuste, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic
ECM 2600 (CD). 2018. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Andrzej Sasin, Aleksandra Nagorko, engs. DDD. TT: 79:40
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Tõnu Kaljuste, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic
ECM 2600 (CD). 2018. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Andrzej Sasin, Aleksandra Nagorko, engs. DDD. TT: 79:40
Performance *****
Sonics *****
Arvo Pärt is now so popular that it's no longer necessary to explain him. His piety is approachably beautiful and welcoming. He was not born composing his airy, contemplative, trademark "tintinnabular" (bell-like) music; up to the early 1970s, he cut his teeth on the 12-tone scale. His four symphonies, presented here on one CD for the first time, take us through that part of his…
Some of my reviewer colleagues would have you believe that negative reviews are the most difficult of all to write, and that positive reviews fairly write themselves. What nonsense!
As I write this, my copy deadline is three days away, yet I've succeeded at crafting little more than my heading (easy enough: it's just the product's name, followed by my name) and my Associated Equipment sidebar (also easy), leaving a great expanse of nothing in between. That's mostly because the Kalista DreamPlay One, a two-box CD player whose $43,000 price might once have kept me from even considering it…
Although I don't care for remote controls in general, the Kalista's is noteworthy if only because its housing is made entirely of aluminum, and is formed with a pleasant-feeling ridge around its outer edge—it's reassuringly heavy. Its Mute button has no effect, leading me to assume there are other Métronome or Kalista products to which it corresponds; an unexpected bonus is a pair of buttons that diminish or increase the brightness of the display—though these are actually labeled Vol– and Vol+.
Listening
Here's the thing that set into motion such a difficult task: I chose for the…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-box CD player. Analog outputs: 1 pair single-ended (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Digital outputs: 1 S/PDIF (RCA), 1 AES/EBU (XLR), 1 optical (TosLink). Specifications: none published. Output voltage, single-ended or balanced: 1.4/2.5/3.0V RMS. Output impedance, single-ended or balanced: 600 ohms.
Dimensions: DreamPlay One: 17.72" (450mm) W by 5.31" (135mm) H by 18.11" (460mm) D. Weight: 52.9 lb (24kg). Elektra power supply: 17.72" (450mm) W by 4.13" (105mm) H by 17.13" (435mm) D. Weight: 33.1 lb (15kg).
Finish: See text.
Serial…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Garrard 301 turntable; Audio-Creative GrooveMaster II, EMT 997 tonearms; EMT TSD 15, Ortofon SPU A Wood, Shindo Laboratory SPU pickup heads.
Digital Source: Sony SCD-777 SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Hommage T1 & T2 step-up transformers, Shindo Laboratory Monbrison (2017) preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Luxman MQ-88uSE, Shindo Laboratory Haut-Brion.
Loudspeakers: DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Luna Red, Shindo Laboratory. Speaker: Auditorium 23, Luna Red. AC…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Like Rega Research's Apollo CD player, which Art Dudley reviewed in June 2018, the Kalista DreamPlay One has no digital inputs of any kind, which limited my measurement of its technical behavior to using 16-bit test files burned to a CD-R. I tested the Kalista with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"), using two of the six reconstruction filters the Kalista offers: AD's preferred filter, the Super Slow Rolloff, and the default filter, Sharp Rolloff.
The Kalista's error correction was good—no interruptions were apparent in…
How many of us, when asked to name great American symphonists, typically start and stop with Copland, Ives, Bernstein, Barber and, among living composers, Glass and Adams? In doing so, we often ignore a host of others from the mid-to-late 20th century, including Schumann, Piston, Diamond, Cowell, Hanson, Harris, and Hovhaness (to name but a few), most of whom were championed by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony in their celebrated American series of recordings on Delos (reissued on Naxos).
Perception could very well change with the release of Lance Friedel and the London Symphony…