In a statement released to exhibitors on March 9 shortly before 4pm, Joel Davis, founder and CEO of AXPONA sponsor JDEvents, wrote that the move was precipitated “out of concern for the health and safety of all participants due to the…
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Monday, March 9, 2020 AXPONA, the largest audio expo in the Western hemisphere, has moved its dates at Chicago’s Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center to August 7–9. Originally scheduled for April 17-19, the show was on course to feature at least 200 active exhibits, countless headphone displays, a huge marketplace, live entertainment, and more.
Install a new component in your system and there's usually a period of adjustment as you get used to the difference in sound—especially if the new product costs much less than your reference. Channel D's new Lino C 2.0 balanced phono preamplifier costs $2499, yet my ears instantly accepted its combination of drop-dead, noise-free backgrounds and lack of obvious colorations or sonic personality. I didn't hear it—I heard only my Ortofon A95 cartridge, with which I'm well familiar, as amplified by far more costly phono preamps.
Being a current-mode phono preamplifier—one in which a dead…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Battery-powered, solid-state, DC-coupled, current-mode, moving-coil phono preamplifier. Inputs: one pair balanced (XLR), one pair unbalanced (RCA). Outputs: I pair balanced (XLR). Gain: switchable, up to 85dB depending on cartridge source impedance. RIAA accuracy: < ±0.1dB, 20Hz–20kHz. RIAA channel matching: < ±0.1dB, 20Hz–20kHz. Channel separation: >80dB, 20Hz–20kHz. Disotrtion: <0.005%, 20Hz–20kHz. Input load resistance: <1 ohms. Output impedance: 44 ohms (balanced), 22 ohms (unbalanced). Power consumption: <2W idle. Supplied…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn & Castellon turntable & stand; TechDAS Air Force V turntable; SAT CF1-09, Kuzma 4Point and Graham Phantom B 44 tonearms; Ortofon A95, phono cartridge.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18NS, Ypsilon MC-10L, MC-16L step-up transformers; Ypsilon VPS-100, CH Precision P1 with X1 PSU.
Power Amplifiers: A HREF="https://www.stereophile.com/content/ch-precision-m11-power-amplifier">CH Precision M1.1. darTZeel NHB-458.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexx.
Cables: Interconnect: TARA…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
When he reviewed Channel D's Lino C 2.0 phono preamplifier in his June 2019 Analog Corner column, Michael Fremer wrote, "My ears instantly accepted its combination of drop-dead, noise-free backgrounds and lack of obvious colorations or sonic personality." He concluded, "After a few months of listening, my initial enthusiasm and appreciation for the Lino C 2.0 continues." I had been impressed when I performed the measurements to accompany MF's review of Channel D's earlier Seta L phono preamplifier in August 2010 (so much so, in fact, that I purchased the review…
In the January 2020 Stereophile, I described my transformation from John Fahey skeptic to John Fahey fan; suffice it to say, the late guitarist was far from the only musical artist whose work I came to enjoy only after a number of failed attempts. Another was the English band Yes, which I saw in concert in 1977, at New York's Madison Square Garden: I was so bored by the many lengthy instrumental solos, each one remarkable only for the sheer number of notes being squirted at me, that I literally nodded off. (In my defense, it was also very warm in there.)
Today, having been exposed to the…
The Big Bang
Few would have predicted that the Sex Pistols' first gig—in November 1975, at the Saint Martin's School of Art in central London—would be the start of an explosion of music. Not many even knew it was happening. That soon changed. Punk would create a space that other bands rushed to fill. Inspired by the DIY ethos and the rejection of the notion that pop music had to be a 30-minute conceptual track on the lives of elves, punk was just grab an instrument and form a band.
Few would have predicted that the Sex Pistols' first gig—in November 1975, at the Saint Martin's School of Art in central London—would be the start of an explosion of music. Not many even knew it was happening. That soon changed. Punk would create a space that other bands rushed to fill. Inspired by the DIY ethos and the rejection of the notion that pop music had to be a 30-minute conceptual track on the lives of elves, punk was just grab an instrument and form a band.
Some simply aped the style of the Pistols, but by 1978, many felt that had been done to death, and so…
Au Pairs also liked sarcasm and humor with their politics. Brilliantly named—there were two men and two women in the band—their first album, Playing with a Different Sex (1981), is one of my favorites. Mainly about "gender issues," it touches on other serious matters, such as Britain's involvement in Northern Ireland, but it's hardly dull: It brims with excitement. It's passionate, catchy pop with a singer—Lesley Woods—who possesses a stunning voice. (Woods now works as lawyer representing immigrants.)
Politics, though, needn't be spelled with a capital P; it isn't necessary to…
Earlier today, the Montreal Audiofest announced that it would either be postponed or canceled, becoming the latest coronavirus-related casualty. For now the show is considered merely postponed, with news about possible rescheduling coming before the end of March. AXPONA, the western hemisphere's biggest show, announced its postponement Monday. The closure of High End Munich was announced at the end of February.
"We are working with the Bonaventure Hotel to see the remaining possibilities for 2020," wrote the Montreal show's organizers, Sarah Tremblay and Michel Plante, on the show's…
In a press release issued just a few minutes ago, the organizers of the Montreal Audiofest announced plans to reschedule their postponed show for 15–17 May, the original dates of the now-canceled High End Munich show.
It's a clever solution in a crowded audio show calendar: It's difficult to find dates when potential exhibitors are not already busy. And if all goes as hoped, the Montreal show could benefit from the cancelation of this year's Munich show: Companies that had planned exhibits in Munich could now present them instead in Montreal.
And yet, it is also a bit daring:…