The idea was not to name the records I most love, or to list undiscovered or underappreciated masterpieces I could rattle on about (not that I wasn't…
search
And I used to think our annual "Records To Die For" issue was difficult. Whew! When it came down to choosing the 40 most influential rock/pop, jazz, and classical records of the past 40 years, during which this magazine has been the most honest and enjoyable source of high-end audio journalism, my initial list contained more than 200 choices. A painful paring-down process ensued, with input from every member of the Stereophile staff.
CLASSICAL
WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Sir Georg Solti, Vienna Philharmonic, et al
Decca/London (1958, 1962, 1964, 1965)
The fact that Wagner's Ring is undeniably the finest music-drama ever written did not encourage record labels to record it with the invention of the LP—it was simply too vast and expensive an undertaking. But with stereo and advances in technology, Decca and producer John Culshaw eventually did so, and revolutionized the way opera was recorded—with stage details, movement, perspective, tricks of amplification and tape speed to alter pitch and tone…
ROCK/POP
THE BEATLES: The Beatles ("The White Album")
Apple (1968)
The argument over which Beatles album is most influential is long and, ultimately, unsolvable. While Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is where the band's revolution in thought and approach took wing and soared, Revolver is where the transition from pop band to something much more artistically serious began. Yet Rubber Soul is a better collection of tunes than Revolver. And let's not forget that Abbey Road is as gleaming and perfect an album as rock will ever know. All that said, "the White Album" is the…
LED ZEPPELIN: Untitled ("Zoso")
Atlantic (1971)
Atlantic (1971)
It wasn't the decibel levels—though they were high, God knows—that made the Zep such a watershed rock act. It was their élan, their panache, their clever way of taking blues-rock and making it both a hit tune and something slightly more thunderous than an atomic bomb. While the first album, Led Zeppelin, was where their style began and so was more of a surprise, and Led Zeppelin III has legions of passionate supporters, "Zoso" wins out, if only for "Black Dog," "Rock and Roll," and, yes, the tune that turned air guitar into a plague, "…
JAZZ
MILES DAVIS: In a Silent Way
Columbia (1969)
One of the strangest aspects of Miles Davis' transition from acoustic to electric sound is the notion that he "sold out"—that somehow, while making the music more accessible, he also made it less intellectually dense. If anything, his electric period, which began in earnest with these sessions, was more forbidding, and his style more concentrated, than it had been before. Heretical as it may be, In a Silent Way gets the nod here over the more famous Bitches Brew from the same year, because here is where Miles began his electric…
Sidebar: Honorable Mentions
The Allman Bros. Band: At Fillmore East
Bad Brains: Rock for Light
Bad Company: Bad Company
The Band: Music from Big Pink
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
Benson: Breezin'
Big Star: #1 Record
Art Blakey: Free for All
The Blasters: American Music
Blood, Sweat & Tears: Blood, Sweat & Tears
Boston: Boston
James Brown: Live at the Apollo
Jackson Browne: The Pretender
Tim Buckley: Happy Sad
Jimmy Buffet: Volcano
Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica
The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo
The Carpenters: The…
What kind of speaker can you get for $250/pair? The most tightly contested sector of the speaker market in the UK is right around that price. If you want to be competitive in Old Blighty, you have to offer something pretty special in that range—and because the stakes are so high, the competition is fierce.
Of course, when you're selling speakers for approximately $100 apiece, you're not going to make much profit unless you can eliminate every possible manufacturing inefficiency. That's why most of the speakers competing for a market share in this range are made with automated milling…
B&W claims a 6dB down point of 60Hz; the speaker can play the fundamentals of most instruments cleanly, save perhaps the E-string of a string bass, the lowest keys on a grand piano, or those organ pedals. As a result, despite their diminutive size, the 302s do a fine job of reproducing the body of the music—they don't reduce performers to ghosts of themselves.
You might not expect speakers this size to totally disappear and re-create the original performance, but they do. While small cabinet loudspeakers are known for imaging well, the DM302s throw a soundstage that consistently…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (26mm) soft-dome tweeter, 5" (130mm) pulp-cone bass/midrange driver. Crossover frequency: 3kHz. Frequency response: 72Hz-20kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 91dB/2.83V/1m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (3.2 ohms minimum). Power handling: 25-100W continuous.
Dimensions: 12 5/8" H by 7?" W by 8?" D. Weight: 9 lbs.
Finish: "black ash."
Serial numbers of units reviewed: A032759/60.
Price: $250/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 250.
US Distributor: B&W Loudspeakers of America, 54…
Sidebar 2: Setting Up the 302s
The B&W DM302 is a pure high-end product in that attention to detail is essential if you're going to get the most out of it. This is true of any loudspeaker, of course, but the 302 pays a higher dividend than most modestly priced kit. First, you must put the speakers on good speaker stands—the more rigid, the better. The bad news is that you can pay as much for the stands as you did for the speakers. But don't skimp—scour the want ads and the used department of your local hi-fi shop until you can get really good ones. Mounted on such rigid stands as the…