Kondo was sometimes referred to as "the Picasso of audio design," reflecting his strong desire to walk his own path. Born the second son of a Buddhist priest, he taught electronic engineering and molecular metallurgy before founding Audio Note Japan in 1976. Kondo used aged annealed silver in his audio designs—including the windings in his transformers—leading some industry wags to refer to him as "the silversmith." The 27Wpc, $80,000-plus Kondo Ongaku single-ended triode amplifier is widely…
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We were sorry to learn that Hiroyasu Kondo died January 8, while attending CES in Las Vegas.
Chip Stern provides us with a mini-review of the Sony SCD-777ES . Find out why this SACD player prompted him to exclaim: "At $2500, the SCD-777ES is not merely a Class A component, it's a steal."
Next we have John Atkinson's "As We See It" from April 2001, "Music Before Numbers?" Just how important are those specs when reviewing a product? Reader letters included.
Digging back into the archives a few years, J. Gordon Holt's "As We See It" from January 1985 confronts head-on those pesky charges of Snob Appeal. Responding to mail claiming that Stereophile only appealed to "snobbish"…
More members of the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) are doing retail sales than ever before, although not necessarily out of traditional retail locations, according to new statistics released by the organization. In addition, an increasing number of referrals come from builders rather than from interior designers and architects, indicating that home buyers see home theater and distributed music systems as valuable features.
The trends were revealed in a recent survey of the association's membership, to which 178 of CEDIA's 810 members responded. 49% of CEDIA…
The Consumer Electronics Association announced last week its finalists for the 2005 "Demmy Awards," a collection of audio demonstration music that the group puts together for retailers and manufacturers. The panel of judges for the awards include Stereophile's own John Atkinson.
The CEA sorts the choices into five categories: Best CD Track, Best High-Resolution Two-Channel Track, Best High-Resolution Multi-Channel Track, Best Segment of a DVD as a Movie, and Best Segment of a DVD as a Music Video or Concert.
Old standbys from Pink Floyd (DSOTM) and the ubiquitous Diana Krall are…
A soon-to-be-introduced bill in the US House of Representatives could severely alter the legality of behavior so commonplace that most Americans take it for granted.
When photocopiers became widespread in the 1960s, people quickly discovered—to the dismay of publishers—that they could be used to copy newspaper and magazine articles and sections of books. The swelling popularity of the cassette deck in the 1970s gave millions of music lovers their first opportunities to make their own compilation recordings, a development that launched the music industry into paroxysms of hysteria over "…
XM on a roll: Recent marketing efforts appear to be paying off for XM Satellite Radio. On July 2, the satellite radio startup announced that it had exceeded the 2.1-million subscriber mark during the second quarter. More than 418,000 new subscribers signed up during that period—over twice the number recruited in the same quarter last year. XM-compatible products are appearing at an ever-increasing number of retail outlets, leading some observers to believe that the company may have a fighting chance in the long run.
Onkyo universal changer: Many audio purists still cling to the notion that…
Want to start an argument on one of the audio newsgroups? Just mention ABX. Doesn't matter if you're for it, against it, or just curious about what it is---you'll start a fire that might take weeks to burn out. But before audio newsgroups even existed, J. Gordon Holt was probing the usefulness of the ABX Comparator in an "As We See It" column from 1982, "The Truth Should Out." His thoughts might surprise you.
Our second Archive addition this week is less controversial, but perhaps more important to the music-loving audiophile. In "What Makes a Good Recording?," J. Gordon Holt lays out…
Are audiophiles and recording engineers natural adversaries? From the many slings and arrows hurled back and forth between the camps, it would certainly seem so. Robert Harley asks, "But are recording engineers less concerned about sound quality than are audiophiles? If so, why? Isn't someone who has devoted his life to recording music more caring than the hobbyist audiophile? If not, why not?" Read his analysis of the issues in "A Clash of Values?" Also included is a lively volley of readers' letters.
While returning from the recent HI-FI '99 in Chicago, Stereophile editor John Atkinson…
It's been a long wait, but we're finally starting to see high-bandwidth IEEE 1394 digital audio connections on the back of DVD-A/SACD players (see related story), as first hinted at by Yamaha five years ago. A key ingredient for getting the beleaguered 1394 (or FireWire or iLink) format moving was the inclusion of copy-protection protocols that restrict unfettered consumer use of the digital audio content.
Next step: lose those pesky wires. The 1394 Trade Association announced last week that its Wireless Working Group (WWG) has resolved the issue of commercial entertainment content…
Brian Damkroger listens long and hard to the Primare D30.2 CD player noting, "Primare is reluctant to provide much technical detail about their designs, preferring to let their products do the talking." So after a little chatting, BD files his report.
For vinyl fans, Art Dudley auditions the Audio Note M2 Balanced Phono preamplifier. AD writes, "The M2 has come up for redesign, resulting in a product that not only nips at the M3's heels but comes close to tying the race."
Next, we have Brian Damkroger's concise review of the concise Placette Audio Remote Volume Control passive…