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Years ago, I uncovered a piece of my father's secret soul. Hidden in the back of a closet was a treasure trove I'd give anything to possess today. It was my father's stash of mementos from his service in the Eighth Air Force during WWII: his A-2 leather and lamb's-wool flight jacket, a silk scarf with a detailed topographic map of his Theater of Operations imprinted on it, his "50 mission hat" (an Air Corps-lid with the shaping frame removed, carefully crumpled through the middle so that every mother's son would know he was no FNG), his ruptured duck, and, thrust in one pocket, his old…
Sidebar 1: Jack English auditions the Grado Reference Series One headphones
I'm an audiophile; worse yet, I'm a reviewer. It's my job to hear some of the most incredible audio gear on the face of the planet. So it isn't much of a surprise that I love the cutting-edge stuff!
I kept repeating thoughts like these in my mind like a mantra as I sauntered along, walking from Penn Station to Rockefeller Center one morning on my way to work. But as I did, I must have looked like the Cheshire Cat. My grin stretched from ear to ear. Deep in my shoulder bag was a Radio Shack Optimus CD-3400…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Open-air, dynamic, supra-aural headphones. Frequency range: 12Hz–30kHz. Nominal impedance: 32 ohms. Sensitivity at 1 kHz: 96dB. Weight: 9 oz.
Price: $695. Approximate number of dealers: 510.
Manufacturer: Grado Laboratories, Inc., 4614 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Tel: (718) 435-5340. Fax: (718) 633-6941. Web: www.gradolabs.com.
HAYDN: Symphonies 99 & 102
Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century
Philips 434 077-2 (CD only). Sieuwer Verster, prod.; Jaap Bogaart, eng. DDD. TT: 48:57
HAYDN: Symphonies 100 & 104
Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century
Philips 434 096-2 (CD only). DDD. TT: 53:35
Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century
Philips 434 077-2 (CD only). Sieuwer Verster, prod.; Jaap Bogaart, eng. DDD. TT: 48:57
HAYDN: Symphonies 100 & 104
Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century
Philips 434 096-2 (CD only). DDD. TT: 53:35
Recordings occasionally come along that put all-too-familiar repertory into a strikingly new and revealing perspective. So it is with these two releases. Though not without minor blemishes, Brüggen's readings present a bold Haydn, at once dramatic and assertive, yet lyrical, graceful, and…
Stereophile: The Time Line
1930: Justin Gordon Holt is born in North Carolina. His family moves to Melbourne, Australia in 1935, and returns to the US in 1947.
1948: CBS's Dr. Peter Goldmark demonstrates the (mono) microgroove LP; Audio Engineering magazine is launched, later to split into Audio magazine and the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society; John Atkinson is born in England; J. Gordon Holt records his high-school band with one of the first tape recorders, a Brush Soundmirror BK401. (One of his 1948 recordings is later featured on Stereophile's first Test CD.)
…
1973: In October, tired of waiting for the next issue of The Stereophile to arrive in his mailbox, Harry Pearson launches the first issue of The Abso!ute Sound, to be based on an editorial philosophy of judging audio components by listening to them.
1975: Apparently out of design inspiration, J. Gordon Holt prints a typewritten contents list on the cover of Vol.3 No.9 (Issue No.33), dated "Summer (2) 1975."
1976: John Atkinson abandons his career, such as it is, as a professional bass guitarist, and joins the English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review as news editor. Deputy…
1984: In Issue No.63 (Vol.7 No.1), Larry Greenhill (still with the magazine in 2002) and Anthony H. Cordesman make their debuts as Stereophile reviewers. Bob O'Neill is the magazine's first full-time advertising salesperson, joined two issues later and then replaced by audio magazine veteran Ken Nelson. Vol.7 No.3 also sees Steven W. Watkinson make his reviewing debut, while Don Scott starts reviewing FM tuners. The cover price increases to $3.95 with Vol.7 No.5, at 100 pages the largest issue yet published.
1985: At 112 pages, Issue No.71 (Vol.8 No.1) breaks the previous record, only to…
1988: The big news with the January issue (Vol.11 No.1) is the launch of the "Industry Update" column, shamelessly modeled on the news coverage of the UK's Car magazine. The Show returns to Santa Monica, Laura LoVecchio joins the magazine's sales team from Audio magazine, and the watchword is growth and consolidation. By the end of 1988, the circulation is 47,000 and our largest-ever issue is the June issue, at 248 pages. J. Gordon Holt writes more reviews in 1988 than he has ever done before or will ever do again. After having had some letters published in "Letters," Robert Deutsch makes…
1993: In this year of consolidation the decision is made to abandon, starting with the January 1994 issue, the digest size with which the magazine has been identified for the past quarter century. In the meantime, HI-FI '93 is a roaring success at the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco's Mission District, Jack English contributes an excellent three-part series, "The Sonic Bridge," on how to listen to audio components, Robert Harley continues his fascinating investigation into digital word-clock jitter, we publish J. Gordon Holt's extensive glossary on how to describe sound quality, and Jonathan…
1998: December 1, 1997 is a portentous date in Stereophile's history, because on that day the magazine's website emerges from the darkness. The result of months of work by webmaster Jon Iverson, www.stereophile.com begins with weekly news updates, a poll and a " Soapbox," and in 1998 adds a links database and begins making Stereophile's archive of reviews and articles available online.
But 1998 is a year to remember because, on June 1, ownership of Stereophile, Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, and the HI-FI Show passes from Stereophile, Inc., the corporation jointly owned by Larry…