Streaming is revolutionary, but there's one aspect that bugs me. Whenever new content…
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Lately in this space I've focused on all things (rather, some things) analog. This month I return to digital, specifically to streaming. I love listening to records, but I also listen to a lot of streamed music. I'm a Qobuz devotee, since Qobuz is the most approachable streaming service and the friendliest to audiophiles. When Spotify went lossless, I subscribed, because that service's popularity means that it's easy to trade music and playlists. Most playlists I've seen published online are Spotify.
L–R: Dwight DiMartino, Walter Schofield, Walter Swanbon, David Hudon.
A common theme in this space in Stereophile is the need to reach new audiences and generate broader interest in the hi-fi hobby. At a time when traditional hi-fi buyers are becoming scarcer—as older generations pass on—the need becomes more critical to the industry's survival.
Recently, two industry stalwarts—who both happen to be named Walter—have come together to form "an audio distribution and marketing superpower," their first press release said. The Walters are bringing their skills and experience together…
Pur ti miro
Wu Wei, sheng; Martin Stegner, viola; Janne Saksala, double bass
ECM New Series 2843 (CD; reviewed as 24/96). 2025. Manfred Eicher, exec. prod.; Martin Sauer, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Wu Wei, sheng; Martin Stegner, viola; Janne Saksala, double bass
ECM New Series 2843 (CD; reviewed as 24/96). 2025. Manfred Eicher, exec. prod.; Martin Sauer, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Pur ti miro presents a certifiably off-the-beaten-track crosscultural instrumental exploration that may strike some audiophiles as a bit weird, at least at first. Yet once you transcend tried-and-true expectations and allow what you hear to (in words immortalized by Grace Slick) "feed your head," you will likely find the timbral contrasts, colors, and expressive power…
Photo: Paul Arkyon, Unsplash
There's a scene in the 2002 movie The Pianist in which Adrien Brody's character, the Polish-Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman, is hiding in the ruins of a Warsaw villa. The Nazi officer who discovers him asks what he did before the war. "I was a pianist," Szpilman stammers. The German points to a battered grand piano and orders him to play something. Szpilman hesitates, sits, lifts his trembling hands, and begins Chopin's Ballade No.1 in G minor.
He plays because it's what's left; not to beg, not to resist, but to hold onto the one thing that still…
How many adventurous rock'n'roll bands forged in the late-'60s/early-'70s would have been left by the wayside—or relegated to languish in perpetual cutout-bin purgatory—had it not been for the wide-open programming M.O. of stereo-loving FM radio stations?
The Moody Blues could very easily have been one of those sidelined, notched-cover footnotes, but they altered their gameplan when guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward and bassist/vocalist John Lodge joined the fold a few years after the chart success of "Go Now" in 1964 (footnote 1).
Lodge, who passed away at age 82 on October 10,…
Last night, at cocktail hour here at the Toronto Audiofest, the organizers presented their Lifetime Achievement Award to Stereophile contributing editor and longtime Stereophile contributor Robert Deutsch.
Audiofest organizer Michel Plante invited Jim Austin, Stereophile's new editor, onto the stage to present the award.
"Tonight I have an honor that I haven't earned," Jim said. "I've been Stereophile's editor for only eight months, and I get to present a lifetime achievement award."
Jim then told the audience that he had asked John Atkinson, a longtime colleague of…
Sidebar 1: Listening To The Vessel (and Some Competitors)
Thanks to engineer/producer René Laflamme, who generously allowed Stereophile the rights to needle-drop a track from 2XHD's Audiophile Analog Collection Vol.3, Marie Saintonge's "Traversia."
I chose this track because it offers percussive textures and both low- and high-frequency details, plus it's well-played music. Saintonge's flute carries the song, with support from acoustic guitar and bass, and various percussion and hand-claps.
For comparison sake, I also made needle-drops of "Traversia" with an Audio…
Frederich Nietzsche distinguished between two approaches to culture: The Apollonian, which is characterized by order and rationality, and Dionysian, which is about chaos, intoxication, and vitality. Apollo was the god of Music, Art, Light, and Knowledge, and to Nietzsche, the Apollonian impulse was the main source of beauty. It is characterized by order, clarity, individuation, and measured restraint. To me, Greek sculpture and the paintings of the Great Masters best represent this impulse. It's not just their classical forms—there's a strength to it, a solidity. Also think of the great…
Empire 108
Empire Scientific's 108 Stereo–Mono moving magnet cartridge puts out 8mV, and with it in my system, Julie London's Julie Is Her Name (Liberty LRP 3006) sounded super-vivid and perfectly period correct: Julie sounded like she did coming out of my parents' Columbia console in 1958. When I played E. Power Biggs's Greatest Hits (Columbia MS 7269), the same thing happened. When I played Patsy Cline singing "Heartaches" (Decca 45 31429), it sounded like Patsy sounded coming out of a juke box.
Feeding the Linear Tube Audio Z10e integrated amplifier, the Empire 108 made my…
The obvious starting point for positioning the Sabrinas was the spot usually occupied by the WATT/Puppies, which is also the spot where the Sasha Vs had worked well previously. But when we first fired the Sabrinas up, Peter commented that they "felt a bit closed in." He was correct. This wasn't a placement issue: After a week and a half or so, they began to open up. I can't explain this, though the very close tolerances in many high-performance dynamic loudspeakers make it plausible that things need to loosen up before they start to sound their best. I let the Sabrinas run in for quite a…