It was that evening, during our fun, that I was struck by the specialness of the moment, and of us. We had gotten together no more than a handful of…
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As per our ritual, Karim and Dan arrived at my door in late afternoon, bearing our ritual's customary offerings: dark beer, wine, cold pork sandwiches, fruit and chocolate tarts, good music on well-recorded CDs, and audio hardware to try out on the host's hi-fi—on this particular Friday, my hi-fi. It's what we did: break bread while gabbing like regular folk about regular things, then bolt for the listening room for an evening of hi-fi fun.
Next to Christmas carols, Sousa marches, and the collected works of Bobby "Boris" Pickett, there's no more seasonal music than bluegrass, which comes to life at the 30 or so major outdoor festivals and scores of smaller events that take place every summer throughout the US. As I write this, on the day after Thanksgiving, 2019's bluegrass season is only a memory, and the 2020 season is more than a half a year away.
So I'm cheered to have a bluegrass reissue to recommend this month: the 20th anniversary LP release of Yonder Mountain String Band's first album, Elevation (2LPs, Frog Pad…
Author's Note: It was January 1986. I flew from London to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, following which I drove to Santa Fe, NM with Stereophile's then-owner/publisher Larry Archibald to talk about my leaving British magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review magazine to join Stereophile. After discussing my future role at the magazine, I flew to Chicago to discuss an alternative idea, starting my own audio magazine, with a potential investor. (An idea that fell by the wayside the more I considered Stereophile's potential.) And what happened next, when I flew out of Chicago? That…
Thursday, February 13, 2020, 6–8pm: You are invited to an Evening at Soundscape, 406 W. Cold Spring Ln., Baltimore, MD, for a chance to talk with special guest Sandy Gross, founder and president of GoldenEar Technology. Soundscape will be demonstrating:
A Dolby Atmos home theater system featuring the GoldenEar Triton Reference Loudspeaker
The top-rated Triton One.R Loudspeaker
The first demonstration in Baltimore of a new GoldenEar speaker, coming soon to Soundscape!!
Complimentary wine and cheese will be served. RSVP by phone to (410) 889–1134, by February 11. Space is limited.
When I applied for this job, I wrote a pretend review of the Rogue Audio Sphinx integrated amplifier and emailed it to Stephen Mejias, then Stereophile's deputy editor, who printed it and put it on John Atkinson's desk.
Before I sent it to Stephen, I showed a rough draft to my business agent, Sphere, who said, "Herb, you can't turn this in like this."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you speak as if you are not an audiophile and think you're superior to audiophiles."
"So?"
"You can't do that, because your readers are all audiophiles . . . and so are you."
…
When I began using a standalone DAC with a CD player as a transport, I compared Radio Shack's 75 ohm coaxial cable to some Audio Note AN-Vx interconnect and decided I preferred the AN-Vx. When I started reviewing DACs for Stereophile, I spent some effort comparing audiophile-branded 75 ohm coax and discovered I much preferred the Kimber Kable D60 Data Flex Studio.
What must an audiophile do?
My strategy is to carefully mix diverse teams of moderately priced but superbly constructed wires from a range of popular cable manufacturers. This allows me to avoid swamping my system with any…
It's Friday morning as I write this—the first day of the Florida Audio Expo, which is being held at the Embassy Suites Airport Westshore, near Tampa. As often happens, breakfast ran long, as colleagues and others stopped by for conversation. By the time I got up to attack the show—a little after 10am—someone told me the show was sold out, as in no more room for visitors. Say what? I've never heard of a sold-out audio show.
I spoke to Bart Andeer, one of the show's co-founders, who first pointed out that "sold out" isn't precisely the best word choice for a show with free admission. And…
On February 6, our sister site AnalogPlanet.com reported the news of a three-alarm fire at the Banning, CA headquarters of Apollo Masters, a renowned manufacturer of ready-to-cut lacquers for use in the LP-mastering industry. The blaze reportedly burned for approximately three hours before being brought under control, during which time an adjacent highway was shut down.
Apollo Masters got its start in 1989, when its founders took advantage of Capitol Records' exit from the LP-mastering business: Apollo purchased Capitol's manufacturing equipment and existing stock of raw materials and…
A weekend in Florida in February, plus high-end audio gear galore? Yes, and yes. After five years (that's half a decade, but who's counting?) with rival publication The Absolute Sound, I'm now a free agent, so when Stereophile asked me to fly south to cover the Florida Audio Expo at the Embassy Suites in Tampa, it didn't take me long to accept.
It's a less-than-sunny, cool Friday in the Sunshine state (the nation's third largest, I'm told) but the enthusiasm is running hot. As Southern fashion would dictate, the show's vibe feels casual, convivial.
Now, to kick off the audio…
The Audio Company of Marietta, Georgia, has two rooms at the Florida Audio Expo, both featuring Acora Acoustics loudspeakers. The larger room, with SRC-1 floorstanding loudspeakers ($28,000/pair), also features the VAC Statement 450iQ Monoblock power amplifier (which Michael Fremer is reviewing for the May issue). These efficient (90.5/W/m), 2-way, 8-ohm speakers, with their black-granite cabinets, weigh 246lb each.The total cost of this system, including only the equipment priced on the room sheet and not the Audioquest cabling, closely approaches $300,000. Add the price of the cables and it…