Jim Austin

Jim Austin  |  May 26, 2025
At recent shows, Switzerland-based CH Precision has most often presented its electronics with Wilson speakers. At High End Munich 2025, the company was planning to demo with a pair of Rockports; that plan was foiled when [edited] the M10s went full power and took out three of four woofers, according to Kevin Wolff, the head of international sales for CH Precision and Wattson Audio.
Jim Austin  |  May 15, 2025
I wrote much of this column, including the title, in early April before the Trump administration announced "reciprocal" tariffs on imported goods. A random example: Switzerland, home of CH Precision, darTZeel, Goldmund, Orpheus Lab, Piega, Stenheim, Thorens, and Wattson, among other hi-fi companies, where the tariff is 31%. Before this issue closed, the Trump administration announced a 90-day reprieve for everyone but China, then exempted computers and smartphones (and a few other categories) from the China tariffs. Importers and foreign manufacturers I talked to at AXPONA in April were happy for the reprieve but remained on edge. Uncertainty reigned.
Jim Austin  |  Apr 27, 2025
I heard people at the show, including Stereophile writers, were talking about the Ø Audio room—though when I say they were talking about it, I don’t mean that they were saying the company’s name, since no one knew how to do that. I looked it up. Ø is a letter in Norwegian and Danish that comes after the end of our alphabet, after Æ and before Å. If you want to know how to pronounce it, I'll provide a link to a pronunciation guide. You'll notice that the pronunciation in Danish and Norwegian is quite different—though the pronunciation I heard from Norwegian Jonathan Cook to me sounded more like Danish.
Jim Austin  |  Apr 27, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 23, 2025
The Innuos ZENith Next-Gen ($20,700 as equipped) does what streamer-servers do: store music files, read them into memory, and send them on to a D/A converter to make music. In Innuos's complex (yet logical) lineup of streamers and streamer-servers, the ZENith Next-Gen sits just below the flagship Statement and above the ZENith Mk.3. The ZENith Mk.3 remains in the Innuos lineup for now but will be replaced at AXPONA shortly after this issue hits mailboxes and newsstands.

Though similar in many respects, with a very similar appearance, these two products—the ZENith Next-Gen and the ZENith Mk.3—are very different beasts. There is one rather obvious difference: a CD slot on the Mk.3 (with, of course, a CD drive inside), which makes it easy to rip CDs to the server's internal memory. This feature is absent from the more purist ZENith Next-Gen. But with the Next-Gen you can have your cake and eat it: Attach any USB CD ripper to one of the USB ports, and it will work just the same as the built-in ripper on the Mk.3. The other differences between the Mk.3 and the Next-Gen are less obvious, but those differences go much deeper; see the Details section in this review.

Jim Austin  |  Apr 20, 2025  |  First Published: Apr 18, 2025
One Saturday not long before press time for this issue, I received an email from Technical Editor (and former Editor) John Atkinson with the subject line, "20 Years Ago."

"Just read your May 2005 As We See It for the first time in many years," John wrote. "Great stuff!"

Could 20 years really have passed since I wrote that piece? Back then, I was in a different career, indulging my hi-fi passion by contributing to Stereophile on the side; now I'm in my seventh year as Stereophile editor. Then I was still a youngish dude; now I am an oldish dude. "Time flies" just doesn't capture it.

Some readers will surely remember that long-ago editorial. It was about a product dubbed the Intelligent Chip, a small piece of—well, something—encased in plastic. I wrote, "This small, plastic-encased device is claimed to permanently improve the sound of CDs. Just place the chip atop your CD player, insert a CD, and press Play. 'The sound of the upgraded disc more closely resembles the sound of the original master recording.'"

Jim Austin  |  Mar 18, 2025
Recently, I found myself in an email correspondence with David Chesky, the musician/composer/entrepreneur behind Chesky Records and HDtracks, which was the world's first hi-rez music-download service. With his brother Norman, David has long run those businesses while engaging with his art. At the time of our correspondence, he was on tour with his jazz trio and busy "writing operas and children's works to keep me out of trouble," as he wrote in an email. Brother Norman, surely, has had much to do with the success of the Chesky ventures—I do not mean to give him short shrift—but it was David I was communicating with, so he is the focus here.
Jason Victor Serinus, Jim Austin  |  Feb 20, 2025  |  First Published: Jan 29, 2025
Updated 2/20/2025 (previously 2/12/25)

In a Connecticut courtroom on Wednesday, Kristofer D'Agostino, son of late Krell owner and CEO Rondi D'Agostino, won control over his own trust, opening a path for Krell to begin to get its ducks in a row.

Jim Austin  |  Feb 17, 2025
If there's a technical thing nearly every audiophile knows, it's that low frequencies (LF) aren't directional. We tend to treat LF as mono—think sub/sat systems in stereo, "LFE" in home-theater. But if the conclusions of a study by Thomas Lund, a researcher at Genelec OY, imply what they seem to, then that conviction is quite wrong.

In addition to resetting that bit of conventional wisdom, Lund's study may have uncovered an important contributor to the feeling of envelopment so many audiophiles crave, itself a profound source of pleasure beyond the music itself. As I have often said, and probably written once or twice, listening to a good hi-fi system is like getting a massage.

Jim Austin, Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Dec 12, 2024
Ives Denk: The Violin Sonatas; The Piano Sonatas; Mendelssohn: Piano Trios 1–2; Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande; Verklärte Nacht; Sibelius: Violin Concerto•Serenades•Humoresques•Earnest Melodies•Suite; Brian Baumbusch: Polytempo Music.
Jim Austin  |  Nov 17, 2024  |  First Published: Nov 15, 2024
In the September issue of Stereophile, in this space, I proposed a way to attract more young people to hi-fi. To reach younger people with your products, I argued, speaking mainly to manufacturers, create products that have integrity about them and that also tell a story. Products with a message, products endowed with meaning. Use good materials, classic designs, historically important circuits. To improve value and performance, keep the parts count low and assembly simple. These products need to be reasonably affordable, but it's okay to ask young people to stretch for something fine. . .

After that article hit newsstands, I got feedback, much of it of the "get off my lawn" variety.

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