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There's something very special about a debut album. Even if the musician's or band's vision isn't fully realized, it promises the excitement of something new and fresh. Hearing those first steps can be revelatory. Of course it can equally be the opposite: a huge letdown in money and time spent.

Thankfully Birding, from the London-based trio Deary, is of the former category. Theirs is a sound of shoegaze, of dreamy…

In my own system, it was used with the following source components: the new Philips LHH1000 two-box CD player, its transport section also used to drive the Sony DAS-R1 D/A convertor; a 1975-vintage Revox A77 to play my own and others' 15ips master tapes; and a Linn Sondek/Ekos/Troika setup sitting on a Sound Organisation table to play LPs. Power amplification was provided by a Krell KSA-50 power amplifier, while loudspeakers were either Celestion SL700s or Vandersteen 2Cis, each pair sitting on their dedicated stands and bi-wired first with Monster M1, then with…

Analog Sources: Technics SL-1200GAE and Roksan Radius 7 turntables, Hana EL MC and Roksan Corus Silver MM cartridges.
Digital Sources: Apple Mac mini computer (Intel Core i5) running OS X El Capitan; Halide DAC HD, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DACs; Integra DPPS-7.2 DVD-A player.
Preamplification: Lounge Audio Copla MC step-up amplifier; Lounge Audio LCR Mk.III, Parasound Halo JC3+ phono preamplifiers; Rogue Audio RP1, Simaudio Moon Neo 350P preamplifiers.
Power Amplifier: First Watt J2.
Integrated Amplifiers: Line Magnetic LM-518 IA, Schiit Audio…

I have been interested in human perception almost as long as I have been working in magazines. This sound is something with which everyone in this room will be familiar: a 1kHz tone at –20dBFS.

[Play 1kHz, –20dBFS sinewave tone]

What I'd like you to do now is to imagine the same tone for 10 seconds.

I believe a scan of…

I'd been kicking down doors left and right at AXPONA 2026, demanding rooms spin or stream one of my guilty pleasures that is also one of the better-recorded rock albums in existence: ZZ Top’s 1973 masterpiece, Tres Hombres. More specifically, I wanted to hear "La Grange," or the back-to…

Bonus coverage concludes! Harmonic Audio's demo at Montreal Audiofest 2026—hosted by owner Fabrizio Caprioli, who is also the owner and chef of Barcola Bistro Audio, which is both a fine record shop and fine dining Italian restaurant!—was unconventional.

Held in a narrow passage abutting an escalator, it featured vintage gear, some on…

Bonus coverage continues onward! On vinyl versions of a couple of live Jethro Tull tracks I know quite well, I was surprised by the level of transparency I was hearing on the Planète Haute Fidélité system at Montreal Audiofest 2026. In short, it was into-the-grain textural and big-brother-spying-on-the-crowd revealing.

Bonus coverage continues into the home stretch! The Joseph Crowe system I experienced at Montreal Audiofest 2026 impressed, first by its looks—it was like staring at a forest of gorgeous wood—and then with the scale of the music, the dynamics, the transparency, and the soundstage layering.

In fact, this Joseph Crowe system…