These recent adventures have reminded me how close and hands-on the relationship is between a record collector and their phono equalizer. Watching analog shaman John DeVore play 78s while…
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My DACs are taking naps. I have not played music from a digital source in at least 12 weeks. I'm having too much fun playing records from the '50s and '60s with period-correct phono cartridges and listening to 100-year-old 78s at the Hot Club of New York. When I'm walking the sidewalks, my brain is strategizing about which vintage cartridge I should try next. Cartridge-rolling is my new favorite pastime.
Spin Doctor #33: Hi-Fi Shows, the 2025 Capitol Audiofest, and the Doshi Evolution Phono Preamplifier
I was heading back home to New York in my old Mercedes diesel on a Sunday evening, having just attended the annual Capital Audiofest near Washington, DC. Riding shotgun was fellow Stereophile scribbler Ken Micallef, and as we puttered along the straight, featureless lower half of the New Jersey Turnpike, we started to reminisce about our audio show experiences.
My first audio event was the 1973 hi-fi show in Brussels, Belgium, held at the massive Brussels Exhibition Centre, near the famous Atomium landmark. Today, it's hard to imagine a hi-fi show big enough to fill a huge convention…
VPI's Traveler tonearm uses a double-gimbal bearing for horizontal and vertical movement.
Audiophiles who attend my seminars on turntable setup often ask the most basic questions about tonearms, including the meanings of terms with which I (incorrectly) assume everyone is familiar. This is a good thing—it indicates that new people are entering the ranks of vinyl enthusiasts. This column is for them.
Here I don't discuss so-called "tangential tracking" or "linear tracking" tonearms, or those that use magnets and monofilament instead of more typical bearings. I feel those are best…
John Atkinson
David Abel & Julie Steinberg: Sonatas For Violin & Piano
(Brahms, Violin Sonata No.1 in G; Debussy, Violin Sonata in G minor; Bartók: Rumanian Folk Dances, arranged for violin and piano)
David Abel, violin; Julie Steinberg, piano
Wilson Audiophile Recordings W-8722 (original LP), 0054536872228 (24/176.4 FLAC, Qobuz). 1987/2014. David A. Wilson, Sheryl Lee Wilson, Daryl C. Wilson, prods.; David A. Wilson, eng.; Bruce Brown, digital remastering.
As an erstwhile violinist, I have always been bothered by recordings that exaggerate the…
Mike Mettler
Lenny & The Squigtones: Lenny & Squiggy Present Lenny And The Squigtones
Casablanca NBLP 7149 (LP). 1979. Hank Medress, Dave Appell, prods.; Wayne Tarnowski, Bob Mocklar, Stewart Whitmor, engs.
Don't laugh: Nascent TV comedy duo Lenny & Squiggy of Laverne & Shirley fame closed out the 1970s by dropping a wink-nudge live-album homage to '50s harmonies and FM rock tropes that presaged how a certain faux-British outfit ascended to unforeseen metal-mockumentary heights five years later in This Is Spinal Tap. Analog formats are currently…
When this feature premiered in 1991, it was intended as a list of recordings that were, in the words of Richard Lehnert, the music editor at the time, "both musically and sonically impeccable—in other words, the best, the tops, to die for." RL went on: "such a list also makes for some strange procrustean bedfellows—obscure recordings that would never make the proverbial 'desert island' list snuggling up next to towering classics of the concert hall and control room."
Over time, that focus has shifted. The requirement that the selected recordings be "sonically impeccable" has been relaxed…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Dual-mono, solid state phono preamplifier with "Articulator" demagnification function. Inputs: two single-ended on RCA, one balanced on XLR. Outputs: two single-ended on RCA, one balanced on XLR. Six-position front-panel rotary load-resistance selector facilitating 4.7, 10, 40, 100, 300, and 1k ohm loading for MC cartridges. Rear-panel DIP switches allow selection of load resistance of 34k, 47k, 56k, and 100k ohms and load capacitance of 0, 100, 220, and 320pF for MM cartridges. MC loads of 4.7, 10, and 40 ohms via step-up transformer with "super…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable with EMT 912-HI tonearm and EMT JSD 6 Dynavector XX2A, My Sonic Lab Eminent Ex moving coil cartridges. Grado 78E, Stanton 681EEE, and Nagaoka MP200 moving magnet cartridges; Sorane SA-1.2 tonearm with Audio-Technica ART20, Denon DL-103, Ortofon MC-X40, and Hana Umami Blue moving-coil cartridges.
Phono preamplifiers: SunValley EQ-1616D, MoFi MasterPhono, PrimaLuna EVO 100, Kitsuné KTE LCR-1, Schiit Stjarna.
Integrated amplifier: Linear Tube Audio Z10e.
Loudspeakers: Falcon Acoustics Gold…
Big loudspeakers are where diligent hi-fi reviewers really earn their pay. Not only are they heavy and difficult to move, but they also require attention and patience to set up so that they sound their best in our listening spaces. They take time to understand and study. And they all sound quite different from each other—not subtle differences, like the ones between two high-quality, similarly designed DACs. In this respect, big speakers are like phono cartridges, only more so.
That also makes big loudspeakers especially fun to review. The review is an adventure, akin to meeting a new…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured one of the EgglestonWorks Andra 5 loudspeakers, serial number A5-88887, in Tom Fine's listening room. Tom and I maneuvered the 159lb loudspeaker onto a small dolly, wheeled it several feet from the wall behind it, and aimed the speaker along one of his listening room's diagonals so that it was well away from the room boundaries, apart from the floor. The speaker was driven by TF's Benchmark AHB2 amplifier for the measurements.
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to examine the EgglestonWorks speaker's farfield…