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One of the best pickups we've heard to date, the Grado A was introduced with some fanfare in the fall of 1964 (footnote 1) and then, for no apparent reason, was withdrawn just one year later. It is probably still available, though, either used or, discounted, as new stock at some dealers.

This is (was?) the cleanest-tracking pickup we have tested to date, by a small but perceptible margin, and unlike most ellipticals, its high end is extremely smooth, with no audible rise at all. A slight, broad response dip centered around 5kHz gives it a somewhat…

Description: Low-output, moving-coil phono cartridge. No specifications available.
Price: $50 (1964); no longer available (2020).
Manufacturer: Grado Labs, 4614 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Tel: (718) 435-5340. Web: gradolabs.com.

"Pints With Ayre," the series of videos produced by Colorado manufacturer Ayre Acoustics, has been regular viewing chez Atkinson during these pandemic times. Covering subjects like volume control design, amplifier gain stages, audio transformers, and listening tests, the conversations between Ayre’s sales and marketing director Brent Hefley, chief engineer Ariel Brown, and CEO Ryan Berry, and special guests like Jim White of Aesthetix and Twittering Machines’ Michael Lavorgna, present sometimes esoteric technical subjects in an easy-to…

In Stereophile's February 2018 issue, I reviewed the MBL Noble Line N31, a baroque-styled CD player and D/A processor from German manufacturer MBL. The N31 is expensive, at $15,400, but, as I said in my review's conclusion, digital audio engineering doesn't get any better and neither does digital sound quality. However, I also wrote that the N31's absence of a volume control might be a problem for those who've sold their preamplifiers, as will be the lack of a network port for those who've banished their noisy NAS drives from the…

When I first started writing for Stereophile, John Atkinson brought me a speaker to review. The shipping box was really beat, and it had some other reviewer's name on the UPS label. After a few days of trying to get it to sound good, I speculated that John and at least one other reviewer already knew this speaker did not sound good. Flummoxed, I wrote JA a simple email (he likes simple emails), "Is this a test?" He replied, "Everything is a test."

On Tuesday, at 10am, John's well-traveled, faded-tan Land…

At first look, our November 2020 review of the standmount loudspeaker ($5000/pair) from Alta Audio appeared to be a thorough vindication of the Stereophile method of reviewing, combining measurements with a subjective listening journal. John Atkinson's measurements were generally fine, but he uncovered "strong discontinuities in the impedance traces at 174Hz and 291Hz [that] imply the presence of resonances." (See fig.1 below). They could only be internal airspace resonances, since he found the Alyssa's cabinet to…

I very favorably reviewed the MBL N31 in February 2018—the current version is both certified as being Roon Ready and has an Ethernet network port. (The original price was $15,400; with the new network module it's $16,420.) You can find my comments on how the new N31 performed here.

I also reviewed the stand-mounted GoldenEar BRX loudspeaker ($1500/pair), this time in…

The platter's top layer is made from a "proprietary advanced technical polymer infused with carbon-fiber micro powder and UHM carbon nanotubes," which "keeps…

In those days, I was more inclined to rail against obvious snake oil (footnote 2) than to defend subjective listening. I even participated in a number of spirited online debates with major industry figures, such as the late, great Charley…