Technology
Stereophile
THE GRIMM TRUTH
A Q&A WITH AUDIO DESIGNER EELCO GRIMM
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Bruce Springsteen's later-career back catalog
Seeing Bruce Springsteen perform live in the 1970s and early '80s, pre-Born in the U.S.A., could be a life-changing experience. Bruce was the hungry leader of a relentless, turn-on-a-dime R&B band. A burning star streaking across the rock'n'roll sky, he threw his fiery young self into maximum shows full of urgency (to invoke one of his best rhymes) and those wordy, anthemic pleading/strutting urban fairy tales. He was leagues beyond almost everything and everyone else in those days.
3 min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Kimber Kable Carbon Series
SPEAKER CABLE AND INTERCONNECT
6 min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Weiss DAC204 - D/A PROCESSOR
Weiss Engineering D/A processors are widely known for their high quality, in both home audio and pro-audio circles.
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
The newest star of the Schiit show
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Rollin' with Leo
Horn players were always the show ponies of bebop.
3 min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Magico S5 2024
I have lost track of how many loudspeakers I have measured with DRA Labs' MLSSA system since Stereophile started accompanying its reviews with measurements in the late 1980s, but it must be close to 1000.
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Eversolo AMP-F10
A century ago, pioneering psychiatrist Carl Jung had a wild encounter with the power of sound.
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
PSI Audio AVAA C214
ELECTRONIC BASS TRAP
10 min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Treehaus Audiolab "The Preamplifier"
Imagine navigating the hectic rooms of an audio show at which a sea of similar-looking, similar-sounding gear blends into a predictable thrum, drawing a chorus of familiar nods.
9 min |
August 2025
Stereophile
A whirlwind European hi-fi tour
It was supposed to be so simple, a well-trod path I've followed almost every May for the last decade: A six-day trip to Munich to attend the final Munich High End Show before it decamps to Vienna next year.
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Munich, Je t'aime
During the past decade and a half, the trips I've taken have tended to be for magazine stories.
10+ min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Audiophiles behaving badly
By my estimation, this year's High End hi-fi show—the last in Munich before the world's largest audio show moves to Vienna—was a major success, perhaps the first I've attended since the pandemic that managed to completely escape that shadow. Every day but Sunday it was very busy—sometimes too busy; on the busiest days, the hallways at the MOC convention center reminded me of NYC's Fifth Avenue on Black Friday, an experience I've had once and hope to never have again. Most important: I heard a lot of really good sound.
3 min |
August 2025
Stereophile
Two things that don't suck
There are things that make me feel so unpleasantly lightheaded that some days I worry my cranium might float away like a helium balloon. Like baby animals generated by AI that I can no longer distinguish from real ones. Skin care for tweens. Headlines about American politics that read like headlines about Turkmenistan. The music of Charli XCX.
10+ min |
July 2025
Stereophile
Pathos InPoL Legacy - INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
Back when gasoline had lead in it and amplifiers came with circuit diagrams in the back of the manual, there was an unspoken understanding that power meant weight.
10+ min |
July 2025
Stereophile
A Sorane TA-1 tonearm, the evolving tonearm marketplace, and the Ortofon MC 90X
A friend who sells high-end audio gear once pointed out that people who shop for separate tonearms are very different from those interested in phono cartridges or turntables in general.
10 min |
July 2025
Stereophile
RECORD REVIEWS
Ryan Truesdell launched his Gil Evans Project in 2012 with Centennial.
3 min |
July 2025
Stereophile
The iron-and-tube ethos
Woo Audio's 20th Anniversary WA24 headphone amplifier comes ina distinctive, low-slung chassis that welcomes the eye with gentle angular volumes and bright, frosty-surfaced, copper-toned controls.
10+ min |
July 2025
Stereophile
A solo Gryphon showroom in L.A.
Often in these pages (and in Industry Update), we have reported ways various brands have experimented with the traditional hi-fi-retail formula. An example: the single-company dealership, adopted most recently by the Vervent Audio Group, parent company to Focal and Naim.¹
4 min |
July 2025
Stereophile
Canor Hyperion P1
PREAMPLIFIER
10+ min |
July 2025
Stereophile
Quad 33/303
PREAMPLIFIER/POWER AMPLIFIER COMBO
10+ min |
July 2025
Stereophile
MANUFACTURERS' COMMENTS
ANY CLOD CAN HAVE THE FACTS; HAVING OPINIONS IS AN ART
3 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Staying true to the passion
Steve Jain, cofounder and managing director of Fidelity Imports, has been busy since launching the company six years ago in the Philadelphia area.
4 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
RABBIT HOLES
The spirit of Rush ever lingers
3 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Lyngdorf Audio MXA-8400
8-CHANNEL POWER AMPLIFIER
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
AURAL ROBERT
Charles Tolliver and Strata-East
3 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Stenheim Alumine Two.Five
LOUDSPEAKER
10 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
ROCK OF LIFE
THE BROTHERS IN ARMS CD TURNS 40 BY MIKE METTLER
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
A new vinyl perception of the Doors, all-analog
For Warner Music Group, the Doors have been a deep vein of music gold. Their albums have never been out of print, and the catalog has enjoyed regular reissues for decades. Each new version of the Doors' first six albums sells well enough to prompt another trip to the vaults.
3 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
A Four-Cent Cigar and the Tyranny of Better
Edward Mott Robinson, a Quaker tycoon from whaling-era Massachusetts, would turn down fine cigars. He preferred the cheap kind. “I smoke four-cent cigars, and I like them,” he declared.¹ “If I were to smoke better ones, I might lose my taste for the cheap ones that I now find quite satisfactory.”
3 min |