It's the August Issue!
With Quad's reworking of Peter Walker's "Wonder," the full-range ESL-2912 electrostatic, featured on its cover. Inside you'll find John Atkinson on Rockport's Avior II loudspeaker; Herb Reichert on an affordable amplifier from Emotiva and cost-no-object headphones from Abyss; Art Dudley on a Bryston's CD player; Michael Fremer on Brinkmann's MQA-capable Nyquist DAC and Ortofon's Windfeld Ti cartridge; and Jim Austin on PS Audio's ultimate monoblock.
It's the Pricing, Stupid!
Whenever we run">http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?168">run a poll asking readers what record companies can do to reduce piracy, one of the most common gripes is that CD prices are too high. Apparently the National">http://www.narm.com/">National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and major music retailers across the country agree. They also are looking for better-sounding formats to goose sales.
It's Time 4 Recommended Components
Our October 2018 issue features the latest "Recommended Components" listing, updated and revised. Want to know what we thought about more than 500 audio products? You will find the answers to that question inside this 196-page issue.
It's Time for "Recommended Components"
The October issue is here, with revised and updated capsule reviews of 500 audio products that have been reviewed in the magazine, rated in six categories, from "E" for "Entry Level" to "A+" for those few products that are beyond criticism. Stereophile's "Recommended Components"often copied but never equaled.
It's Time for the April Issue...
...and "Recommended Components," fully revised and updated82k words in 43.5ppour April issue is 196 pages of audiophile awesomeness!
It's Time for the December Issue!
YG's cute Carmel 2 speaker is featured on the new issue's cover and is exhaustively reviewed by John Atkinson inside. But the meat in our December issue is our annual "Products of the Year," where the magazine's writers and editors vote for the products that impressed them the most in the past year. There are some surprises, not the least of which is the great showing made by some very affordable components.
But wait, there's more...
iTrax High-Def Downloads Now Available
Mark Waldrep, the man behind the "only all-HD digital label," Aix Records, has now established an all-HD download site, www.itrax.com. While Music Giants and Linn offer HD downloads, iTrax calls itself "the only website to offer real HD in multiple mixing perspectives," since it offers consumers two-channel stereo, 5.1-channel "audience," and 5.1-channel "stage" perspectives in MP3, Dolby Digital, DTS, WMA pro, WMA Lossless, and PCM 96kHz/24-bit resolutions.
iTubes For Your iPod
There's a basic rule that explains the audiophile's role in the audio food chain: The mass market accepts and then audiophiles perfect. Try to reverse that rule with something like, say, SACD or DVD-Audio, attempting to have sound quality drive mass-market adoption, and you get . . . the DualDisc.
iTunes vs the Listening Room
Stereophile readers are clearly in favorhttp://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?327">favor; of our coveragehttp://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/934/">coverage; of products like Apple's iPod. But judging by some of the comments we receive, they're split on whether it's been a kick in the pants for music lovers or just added to the downward low-rez spiral of digital audio.
iTunes 6.0.2 Is Watching!
Apple's release of its latest version of the iTunes software for Macs on January 10 promised "stability and performance improvements" over the 6.0.1 version already in existence. It also included a new iTunes MiniStore feature that "watches" what you click on your library or playlist and, when you double-click on a selection to play it, changes its display to reflect "matches" you might consider purchasing. This means that iTunes 6.0.2 is sending your now-playing information to an outside server.