There are five individual categories: Loudspeakers (including subwoofers); Amplification Components (preamplifiers, power amplifiers, etc.); Digital Sources (CD players, transports, processors); Analog Sources (phono cartridges, turntables, tonearms, FM tuners, etc.); and Accessories (everything else). In previous years, we have given an…
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For the sixth consecutive year, Stereophile has named a select few components as "Products of the Year." By doing so, we intend to give recognition to those components that have proved capable of giving musical pleasure beyond the formal review period.
Loudspeaker of 1997
EgglestonWorks Andra ($14,700/pair; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.10, October 1997 Review)
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Aerial Acoustics 5 ($1800/pair–$2000/pair; reviewed by Robert Harley, Vol.20 No.4, April 1997 Review)
Audio Physic Caldera ($18,995/pair; reviewed by Martin Colloms, Vol.20 No.8, August 1997)
Epos ES12 ($1095/pair; reviewed by John Atkinson, Vol.20 No.4, April 1997 Review)
Gradient Revolution ($3995/pair; reviewed by Dick Olsher & John Atkinson, Vol.18 No.5, May 1995; & Vol.20 No.3, March 1997 Review)
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Joint Amplification Components of 1997
Krell Full Power Balanced 600 power amplifier ($12,500; reviewed by Martin Colloms, Vol.20 No.4, April 1997 Review)
Pass Labs Aleph 3 power amplifier ($2300; reviewed by Muse Kastanovich & John Atkinson, Vol.20 No.4, April 1997 Review)
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Audio Research VT100 power amplifier ($4495; reviewed by Robert J. Reina, Vol.20 No.3, March 1997)
Ayre Acoustics K-1 preamplifier ($5250–$7100; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.3, March 1997 Review)
Balanced Audio Technologies VK-5i preamplifier ($3995…
Digital Source of 1997
dCS Elgar D/A processor ($12,000; reviewed by John Atkinson, Vol.20 No.7, July 1997 Review)
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
California Audio Labs CL-10 multidisc CD changer ($1975; reviewed by Robert Harley, Vol.19 No.11, November 1997)
Mark Levinson No.36S D/A processor ($6495; reviewed by Thomas J. Norton, Vol.20 No.1, January 1997 Review)
Mark Levinson No.37 CD transport ($3995; reviewed by Thomas J. Norton, Vol.20 No.1, January 1997 Review)
Naim CD2 CD player ($4150; reviewed by Michael Fremer, Vol.20 No.2, February 1997)
Rega…
Joint Analog Sources of 1997
VPI TNT Mk.3 turntable ($5000; flywheel adds $1000; reviewed by Michael Fremer, Vol.19 No.11, November 1997)
Magnum Dynalab MD 108 FM tuner ($5500; reviewed by Don A. Scott, Vol.20 No.5, May 1997)
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Immedia RPM2 tonearm ($2495; reviewed by Michael Fremer, Vol.20 No.5, May 1997 Review)
Immedia RPM2 turntable ($4995; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.20 No.9, September 1997 Review)
Rega RB900 tonearm ($995; reviewed by Michael Fremer, Vol.20 No.8, August 1997)
Rega Planar 3 turntable ($695; reviewed by…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Magico M2's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses. The 165lb loudspeaker was too bulky to move outside for testing or to lift onto my computer-controlled turntable. I therefore had to do the quasi-anechoic measurements in my listening room, where the proximity of room boundaries led to more aggressive windowing of the time-domain data than usual, which in turn reduced the graphs' resolution in the midrange.
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Occasional Stereophile contributor Steve Guttenberg publishes a YouTube channel about audio that has achieved an impressive reach. As Steve told me in a conversation I had with him last December, 22% of his 98,000 subscribers (at the time we talked) are under 34 years old, and, to judge from the comments, most of them don't read Stereophile!!!! "It would nice to introduce you to them!" said Steve, and proposed he interview me and post the video to his channel when it hit the magic 100k number, which it did on January 9.
Steve visited my place in Brooklyn just before the New Year, and we…
Only recently did I learn that successive generations of the Chevrolet Corvette are referred to by the cognoscenti with two-character alpha-numeric identifiers: C1, C2, C3, and so on. I learned this while reading about the most recent version—C8, known to non-cognoscenti as the 2020 Corvette—which happens to be the first version since C2 that impresses me. (I say that as one who used to work for the owner of a C3, a then-middle-aged male who actually boasted, while under the influence, that he and two of his C3-owning friends drove them solely because their juvenile styling attracted…
But note also, irrespective of the loudspeaker in use: In every listening session I've enjoyed so far, the Cortese has taken at least an hour to warm up—and even then its sound continues to improve over at least another hour. I don't recall another Shindo that has taken as long to perform at its best, and that leads me to guess that this sample still has a while to go before it is fully broken in. Which is kind of fun, really.
And note that other Shindo setup tricks to which I've alluded in the past hold true here. In particular, also like all Shindo amps of my acquaintance, it seems…
I thought I knew what a preamp could do. But when the Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum HD preamplifier ($40,000) arrived for review, all my expectations flew out the window.
The two-piece Momentum HD preamp wasn't exactly a stranger. I'd heard it in two of the finest sounding systems I have ever encountered, at a March 2019 event at Seattle's Definitive Audio and, a month later, at Chicago's 2019 AXPONA. Both systems included Wilson Audio Specialties' Alexx loudspeakers and Subsonic subs; D'Agostino Relentless monoblock amplifiers paired with the Momentum HD preamp (and other…