Jim Austin

I wrote in the April 2026 issue of Stereophile that when you clean records in an ultrasonic bath, you need to make some decisions. The first is whether it's necessary to use distilled water or whether tap water is good enough . . . The next decision is, should I use a surfactant?

As I prepared this review of the Marten Mingus Septet Statement Edition loudspeaker ($199,000/pair), I asked the Marten people to tell me something about the company and its values.

Lately, hi-fi's technical emphasis has shifted toward time, away from its longtime main focus on the frequency domain. I'm thinking the trend, which I consider a good thing, started years ago with growing awareness it might be better to accept some aliasing in order to avoid the phase distortion resulting from a "brick-wall" reconstruction filter.

Jim Austin (left) succeeded John Atkinson (right) as Stereophile's editor in April 2019 and has preserved the magazine's Great Wall between editorial and advertising. Here are some of the most important principles that Stereophile religiously follows.

Recently, my good friend Bryan invited himself over for a "critical listening session" at my place. This was out of character. Typically our listening sessions are not of the "critical" variety. They take place late at night after several cocktails, neat bourbon in hand. Volume knobs are torqued. The choice of recorded material tends toward early Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), that one Hank Williams Jr. album that doesn't suck (The Almeria Club Recordings), and one of two Def Leppard albums (Pyromania or (Hysteria).

Frederich Nietzsche distinguished between two approaches to culture: The Apollonian, which is characterized by order and rationality, and Dionysian, which is about chaos, intoxication, and vitality. Apollo was the god of Music, Art, Light, and Knowledge, and to Nietzsche, the Apollonian impulse was the main source of beauty.

Lately in this space I've focused on all things (rather, some things) analog. This month I return to digital, specifically to streaming. I love listening to records, but I also listen to a lot of streamed music. I'm a Qobuz devotee, since Qobuz is the most approachable streaming service and the friendliest to audiophiles.