Scotland's Fyne Audio already has a large lineup of loudspeakers, from small budget standmounts to some serious high-end contenders, like the nominally 96dB/2.83V/m, 8 ohm flagship F1-12, with its 12" concentric driver. I counted 23 models in 5 series, including four subwoofers but not counting their in-wall and in-ceiling lineup.
Should you ground your loudspeakers? With most speakers it's a moot point, since there's no practical way to ground the internal metal parts. A few companies—Tannoy comes to mind—have in the past sold speakers with a grounding pin, claiming reduction of distortion and RF interference.
The first thing I did at the Toronto Audiofest—after eating breakfast and attending some business meetings—was visit the Zesto Audio room, where I was hosted by Zesto Audio President and designer George Counnas. I was eager to hear the just-announced Leto Ultra vacuum tube preamplifier ($9995 US), which features—wait for it—tone controls.
One of my biggest surprises since I became the editor of Stereophileand so started focusing more on all things audiophileis how often I find myself thinking about the ethics of this hobby. This is unusual for me: I dislike moralism and prefer aesthetics to ethics.
In a late-August newsletter, PS Audio announced a major change in how it does business. In the United States, its home market, the company stopped selling its products through dealers and opted for a direct, online-only sales model. Outside the US, it will continue to sell through authorized dealers.
The Vivaldithe four-box flagship product from digital audio specialists dCSis, in my opinion, misnamed. Vivaldi the composer was an asthmatic priest who worked in an orphanage for 30 years and died in poverty. The Vivaldi stack dedicates four separate products to converting into music digital code stored on silver discs (although you can play musicvery well I am sureon just one box, the Vivaldi DAC, footnote 1). Together, those boxes weigh about 148lb and cost some $115,000. The most expensive is the CD/SACD transport; leave that off and you can save 51lb and $42,000.
Yup, you're in a strange position, all right. You're in love with a girl who is no more.Haruki Murakami
The quote above, from Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore, is addressed to Kafka, a 15-year-old boy who has fallen in love with the teenage ghost of an older woman. The woman is still alive, but ever since the death of her lover many years before, she has existed separate from her spirit. Falling in love with ghosts is something I've done often, starting at about Kafka's age.
A DAC/preamp/headphone amp from Class A of Stereophile's list of Recommended Components, updated with streaming and network-server capabilitiesand it still sells for less than $3000? If you believe that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. (Har, har!)
Most Americans have heard that line before, but many may not know the story behind itI didn't. George C. Parker, a real American person born in 1860, is famous for perpetrating audacious frauds, specifically sales of property he did not own and could not possibly have owned. He is reported to have sold the Statue of Liberty, Grant's Tomb, the original Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, andmost famouslythe Brooklyn Bridge that last one twice a week for several years, at prices ranging from $75 to $5000. Or so some say.
If you're a music fanand if you're reading this, you probably areyou've heard this already: On June 11, the New York Times Magazine published an investigative report about a 2008 fire that destroyed a vault at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
Workers were repairing a roof on an oft-reused movie set, heating asphalt tiles with a blowtorch. Protocol required the repairmen to stick around for one hour until the asphalt had cooled, to guard against fire. But shortly after they left, a fire broke out. Hundreds of firefighters fought it, pulling water from the lake once inhabited by The Creature from the Black Lagoon.