Every month Stereophile magazine offers authoritative reviews, informed recommendations, helpful advice, and controversial opinions, all stemming from the revolutionary idea that audio components should be judged on how they reproduce music.
Sometimes speakers talk to me. Usually when they do, they ask me to move them, or to move myself—the listening position—to suit them. The first time I recall experiencing this was at a Sonus faber listening event at the old McIntosh House in Manhattan—the first one, before they sold that one and got another one. That day, several speakers from a new Sonus faber line were being auditioned in various rooms throughout the mansion. As I listened to a smaller pair in a smaller room, I noticed I was leaning to the side. It was an off-center setup, with only a couple of feet between the speaker and a wall; on the other side was much more space. I realize that this—the fact that speakers talk to me like this—doesn’t…
Thank you! It was a sad day when I learned that Sound & Vision was no longer to be. I received a notification that the remainder of my 25-plus-year subscription was going to be fulfilled with Stereophile. Meh! What good is a magazine that reviews high-end and high-dollar components going to do for a budget-minded 68-year-old semi-audiophile? After several issues, I discovered that I was getting an education. The more reviews I read, the more I learned about my lifelong hobby. This really kicked in when I got an issue with the Recommended Components guide. Since then, I have built the best-sounding system of my 50 years of listening. It consists of a Elac DPA 2 amplifier, Shiit Freya Plus preamp, Schiit Bifrost DAC, a pair of Philharmonic BMR monitors,…
Definitive Audio in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle—one of the premier dealerships in the Pacific Northwest—continued its 50th anniversary celebration with an event it called “Icons and Innovators.” Highlighted by showings of the new JBL Everest series and Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus and 801 Abbey Road edition loudspeakers, the event drew a full house to the first of two sessions. JBL/D’Agostino/dCS/Clearaudio My first stop was at the first showing of JBL’s Summit Makalu loudspeakers ($60,000/pair). The name derives from Makalu mountain near Mount Everest. On hand were Chris Hagen, the principal acoustic engineer for the Summit series; Dave Tovissi, vice president and general manager of Harman’s Luxury Audio division; and Jim Garrett, senior director of product strategy and planning for Harman’s Luxury Audio division. “The Summit series is JBL’s latest effort…
What’s better than attending an audio event? Attending three. Well, not exactly three—more like two spread across three locations, tied together by one company: importer-distributor American Sound of Canada, which is based in Greater Toronto. Owned by longtime industry figure Angie Lisi, American Sound of Canada has, since its founding in 1990, been a purveyor of some of the finest audio gear in the biz. According to the written invitation, the event’s main purpose was to celebrate the launch of a new showroom. But when I spoke with Angie ahead of my visit, she explained, in her signature rasp and no-nonsense style, that there was another reason behind the event: to bring the people who help shape the industry—manufacturers, dealers, consumers, media—together. “There are too many cliques now,” she said,…
Last night, I sat on a bright yellow velveteen sofa eating red beans and rice while listening for three hours to blues and jazz from rare 78rpm records. I walked out feeling gospel-level raised up, with a head full of dreams and cultural memories. The Hot Club of New York Matthew Rivera’s Hot Club of New York is on the third floor of an old commercial building at 20 W 20th Street, across from what used to be the Limelight Club. The walk from the F Train at 23rd Street generated a Rolodex of memories from watching this neighborhood evolve during my 50 years traipsing the streets above Union Square. But those memories didn’t prepare me for Matthew’s passionately curated mise-en-scène inside the Hot Club of New York. The listening…
“You should come to CAF,” Ken Micallef said. He has been saying this for what seems like decades. “It’s cool, smaller and more manageable than AXPONA. You’ll like it.” I explained to Ken that I don’t like crowds. Or airports. That trying to listen while people are talking loudly over the music aggravates my Generalized Anxiety Disorder. And that having to sit through anything at all by Dire Straits rubs me even wronger than it did in high school. But this year my curiosity got the best of me, and on a crisp November night I rode the Acela to Washington’s Union Station, then took the Red Line to North Bethesda, and at long last, tired and already regretting my Amtrak dinner, trudged toward the twinkling lights of a Canopy…
