Added to the Archives This Week
First up is Stereophile's">http://www.stereophile.com//features/294/">Stereophile's 2000 Products of the Year. This is an important resource for readers, and Stereophile editor John Atkinson has once again decided to post this oft-requested article in our online archives in the same month the original appears in the paper edition.
Added to the Archives This Week
Robert Deutsch asks, "How can you tell an audiophile from a normal person?" RD's answer involves the name of the Vienna">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/296/">Vienna Acoustics Mahler loudspeaker, which Deutsch reviewed for the April 2000 issue of Stereophile. Deutsch writes, "I find Gustav Mahler's music to be on the ponderous side, but when I heard the Vienna Acoustics Mahlers at HI-FI '99, I was sufficiently impressed that I began the process of getting a pair for review." The results of his careful listening are not ponderous at all.
Added to the Archives This Week
Record 10 CDs worth of music in one weekend? John Atkinson writes: "I blanched. This was an enormous task: 32 sonatas; 103 individual movements; more than 11 hours of music—11 hours, 26 minutes, and 25 seconds, as it turned out." How to record Canadian pianist Robert Silverman performing Ludwig">http://www.stereophile.com//musicrecordings/298/">Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas in such a short time? JA explains the revolutionary process in detail.
Added to the Archives This Week
DVD-Audio has been brewing for a couple of years now, finally going public with the Technics">http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/300/">Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player. Jonathan Scull got his eager hands on this groundbreaking machine last September, only to find that evaluating a new format is a complicated affair. Will this player, and DVD-Audio in general, soothe the audiophile heart? Scull takes a listen and spills the bits.
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Kalman Rubinson didn't expect to complete a full review of the Revel">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/302/">Revel Ultima Studio loudspeaker, planning instead to investigate only the company's F30 (also">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/244/">also available in the online archives). But after the Studios ended up spending several months in his home, there was only one honorable option available: 'fess up and submit his true feelings.
Added to the Archives This Week
Writer Brian Damkroger had always wanted "a really good, big solid-state amp" to match his Magnepan loudspeakers. So when the Classé">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/304/">Classé CAM 350 monoblock power amplifiers arrived, it seemed like at least one of his dreams had finally come true. But was it a match made in heaven? Damkroger lays out the details in his January, 2001 review.
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Writer Chip Stern has regarded the form-over-function products from "lifestyle" companies, such as Bose and B&O, for years now with great amusement. But can audiophiles find a product that looks as good as it sounds? Stern calls the Linn">http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/307/">Linn Classik CD receiver a "sleek, unobtrusive, uncomplicated design that does double duty as a lifestyle system and—for those who don't want the hassle of separate components—a true high-end performer." Too good to be true? Stern expounds.
Added to the Archives This Week
February's the month when Stereophile publishes its coveted "Records To Die For" feature, wherein everybody working for the magazine gets to make like a music critic and add their two cents' worth about what gets them excited (musically speaking). R2D4 2001 is on newsstands right now, in the February issue of Stereophile; to commemorate its publication, we add the 2000">http://www.stereophile.com//records2die4/308/">2000 "Records To Die For" to the online archives.
Added to the Archives This Week
As Michael Fremer puts it, "In analog, it's the little things that count, and Rega's upgrade of the basic Planar 3 design to the Planar 25 can only be described as visibly 'small.' But the sonic improvements I heard during my first encounter with the $1275 arm/'table combo were audibly big." Fremer takes a close look at and listen to the Rega">http://www.stereophile.com//analogsourcereviews/309/">Rega Planar 25 turntable for Stereophile readers and attempts to reveal all of its secrets. Sam Tellig adds his two cents' worth.
Added to the Archives This Week
After a frustrating late-night duel with evil recording gremlins, JA called it a day. But the next morning he was back at the controls to record Canadian pianist Robert Silverman for what would subsequently become one of Stereophile's popular audiophile recordings: Intermezzo: Works for Piano by Brahms. In Intermezzo:">http://www.stereophile.com//musicrecordings/311/">Intermezzo: The Santa Barbara Sessions, writer Thomas Norton runs down the key events that finally resulted in a completed analog master tape, with engineering from Water Lily Acoustics' Kavichandran Alexander.