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Stereophile's enduringly healthy circulation suggests widespread support for the multiplicity of voices in our pages, and virtually every month that notion is confirmed by letters from our readers. Most of our reviewers have their fans and their detractors, and although it's been a long time since I've seen a letter demanding the head of this or that reviewer, we still occasionally hear from readers who want us to know they trust Herb or John or me or Mikey or Kal or someone else above all others.
The image above is not a modernist oil painting. It's an airport x-ray of my friend Jeffrey Jackson's backpack.
Can you identify its contents? Did you notice the red rectangle alerting the inspector of a suspicious object? Do you know what that suspicious object is? Or what it is worth?
That ominous-looking black silhouette is a 1930s-era Western Electric 555W "receiver"—ie, a compression driver for use with a horn. It's about 10" in diameter and weighs around 15lb. It requires a 7V DC/1.4A power supply for its field-coil magnet and would cost about $8000 to replace.
In…
Input signals were generated by mono and stereo LPs traced by a variety of stereo phono cartridges with their coils connected in series (for mono) by an adaptor at the end of the tonearm cable. The phono cartridges fed one channel of a Slagle step-up transformer, leading to one channel of a Slagle/Jackson–designed inductance-resistance (LR) phono preamp: an RIAA stage that uses no signal capacitors or coupling capacitors. That fed one of Slagle's famous autoformer volume controls, which in turn fed Jackson's single-ended, transformer-coupled 50 tube amp, which makes maybe 2 watts. (The globe…
In the mid-1990s, record labels were cash-flush and music magazines plentiful. Warner Bros., Capitol, Universal, Mercury, RCA, Arista, Mute, and Astralwerks shuttled US-based music journalists across the Atlantic to cover England's burgeoning Britpop, trip hop, drum and bass, and techno music scenes. The latter three genres were hailed by the press as the "electronic dance music revolution."
Back then, my writing career was divided between jazz, indie rock, and electronic music. I wrote for Rolling Stone, JazzTimes, Ray Gun, and Option, among others. There was ample work, and music…
Sidebar: Classic EDM Works
The Future Sound of London: Lifeforms (Virgin/ Astralwerks, 1994)
FSOL's postapocalyptic theme was reflected in Lifeforms' video, which starred a blank-faced "witch girl," ambient horror tones, and flowing-yet-glitchy beats.
Everything but the Girl, Todd Terry: Amplified Heart (Atlantic, 1994)
An established blue-eyed soul duo, EBTG made techno a household name with Todd Terry's beat-heavy remix of their torch song, "Missing."
Portishead: Dummy (Go! Beat Records, 1994)
Beth Gibbons's fragile vocals clung to Geoff…
Thursday March 19th, 5–8pm: Shelley's Stereo, 22102 Clarendon St. in Woodland Hills, CA, will host representatives from Yamaha for a Yamaha 5000-series listening party. Appetizers, wine, and other refreshments will be provided. Shelley's will be holding a raffle, for prizes. RSVP required. BYOV—Bring Your Own Vinyl—optional.
The Quad Electroacoustics Ltd. Artera Solus is a multifunction audio component that was designed to look smart on top of a bureau in a living room or office. It comes with a thick, removable smoked-glass top that complements its compact dimensions. It weighs 25lb, and, in addition to being attractive, feels genuinely solid and well-made. Like its Artera-series stablemates, the Artera Solus strikes an intriguing engineering and aesthetic balance between decorator-friendly lifestyle product and serious audiophile product worthy of the Quad name.
Description
The Artera Solus was…
I could be persnickety about some extra thickness and roundness of sound, but for what purpose? Even with some added thickness, Jimmy sounded a lot like he would have on a jukebox in 1962 when this recording first appeared: big and solid with plenty of twang and reverb. More than usual, I enjoyed all the tracks on this album.
With the Magnepan .7
I knew in advance that the Magnepan .7 quasi-ribbon panel speakers plus Quad Artera Solus would be a happy marriage. I felt certain that the Quad's class-AB amp would dump enough current into the Maggie's 4 ohm load. And it did. I liked how…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Stereo integrated amplifier operating in class-AB, with DAC (32-bit ESS Sabre ES9018DAC chip) and a CD transport. Analog inputs: 2 pairs single-ended (RCA). Digital inputs: 1 USB (Type B, DSD256 compatible), 4 S/PDIF (2 TosLink, 2 RCA). Analog outputs: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR), 1 ¼" stereo headphone jack. Digital outputs: 1 TosLink, 1 RCA. Loudspeaker outputs: stereo pair of 3-way loudspeaker binding posts. Max. sample rates: 384kHz (USB), 192kHz (S/PDIF). Preamp S/N: >104dB, A-weighted, max volume (ref. 1V). Amplifier S/N…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable with Jelco TK-850L tonearm and Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum moving-coil cartridge; AMG Giro G9 turntable with 9W tonearm and Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue moving-coil cartridge.
Digital sources: Apple iPhone 8, MacBook Air laptop, Mac mini computer running Audirvana Plus; HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3 and Chord Qutest D/A processors; Integra DPS-7.2 (used as CD transport).
Preamplification: EMIA MC step-up transformer (with Koetsu), Excel Sound Corporation ET-U50 SUT (…