CATEGORIES

PAT METHENY
Stereophile

PAT METHENY

FROM HIS PLACE

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10+ mins  |
July 2021
Vincent Audio SV-737
Stereophile

Vincent Audio SV-737

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
July 2021
REVINYLIZATION
Stereophile

REVINYLIZATION

Blood, Sweat & Tears began as Al Kooper’s dream of a rock band with horns. By the time he realized the concept—on the band’s 1968 debut, Child Is Father to the Man—it had become much more: an engaging hybrid of New York soul, Greenwich Village folk, and innovative jazz arrangements. With producer John Simon at the helm, Child was a virtual definition of the possibilities inherent in the heady musical experimentation of the late 1960s. Kooper’s writing and arranging for that record (including the monumental “I’ll Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,” later a hit for Donny Hathaway) is one of the high points of his storied career. The record was justifiably praised as the conceptual breakthrough it was, and work had already begun on a follow-up when the band decided it needed a lead singer with more polish. Kooper left the group along with a couple of other key members.

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3 mins  |
July 2021
Michi by Rotel M8
Stereophile

Michi by Rotel M8

MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
July 2021
Magico A5
Stereophile

Magico A5

It’s rare for a Stereophile reviewer to review two loud-speakers in a row from the same manufacturer, but then these are unusual times. Because of the pandemic, Magico’s M2s got stuck here for a year (I know: poor me). By the time they were packed up and shipped out, it was time for a long-scheduled review of the less-expensive, more-massive Magico A5 ($24,800/pair).

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10+ mins  |
July 2021
Line Magnetic LM-845IA
Stereophile

Line Magnetic LM-845IA

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
July 2021
FOLLOW-UP
Stereophile

FOLLOW-UP

The greater my own longevity, the more I admire that very quality—longevity, that is. An “upgrade path” is similarly appealing—if, regrettably, rarely available to humans, who are stuck with the equipment we were born with, give or take a prosthesis or two.

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8 mins  |
July 2021
Esoteric Grandioso C1X
Stereophile

Esoteric Grandioso C1X

LINE PREAMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
July 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Stereophile

BOOK REVIEW

CHAIRMAN AT THE BOARD: RECORDING THE SOUNDTRACK OF A GENERATION, by Bill Schnee. Backbeat Books, 2021. 219pp. $24.49, hardcover; $21.49, Kindle e-book.

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6 mins  |
July 2021
Classical Rock / Pop Jazz: Record Reviews
Stereophile

Classical Rock / Pop Jazz: Record Reviews

In its sixth year, International Anthem seriously stepped up production. 2020 saw the Chicago label releasing a fast succession of rewarding albums, including a standout disc by Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker and adventurous jazz by Rob Mazurek and the collective Irreversible Entanglements.

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3 mins  |
June 2021
NAD C 298
Stereophile

NAD C 298

POWER AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
ELAC Alchemy DPA-2
Stereophile

ELAC Alchemy DPA-2

POWER AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
Fun with Moose and Squirrel
Stereophile

Fun with Moose and Squirrel

’Cause, it’s hard to say what’s real / When you know the way you feel —Flaming Lips, “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21,” from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

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4 mins  |
June 2021
Marten Parker Trio Diamond
Stereophile

Marten Parker Trio Diamond

LOUDSPEAKER

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
Stereophile

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

The bijou sub We have inherited an infinitely vast library of recorded musical art, the majority of which is well-recorded but has yet to be fully and completely reproduced.

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
Stereophile

Clearaudio Concept Active Wood

TURNTABLE

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
Focal Aria K2 936
Stereophile

Focal Aria K2 936

LOUDSPEAKER

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
DCS BARTOK DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
Stereophile

DCS BARTOK DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER

THIS ISSUE: Herb Reichert on the dCS Bartók; Ken Micallef reprises his Schiit Sol review, trying it out with some better ancillaries.

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10+ mins  |
June 2021
The magnificent eight
Stereophile

The magnificent eight

The Story of the Grateful Dead, a 14-LP, 8-album collection of Grateful Dead recordings with booklet and deluxe packaging, from Vinyl Me, Please (VMP-A006, 2020), is intended as a curated sampling of the high points in the Dead’s extensive catalog. The first seven albums were cut from analog tape, while Without a Net comes from the original digital master. The sound is breathtaking.

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4 mins  |
February 2021
T+A Solitaire P headphones and HA 200 DACheadphone amplifier
Stereophile

T+A Solitaire P headphones and HA 200 DACheadphone amplifier

What I categorize as mainstream, dealer-based, fancy-pants stream-ers and big-speakers audio is actually only the gold-plated tip of a gigantic asteroid-like monolith that extends (underground) from New York to Hong Kong, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica. This immense audio-social mass is mostly invisible to the Madison Avenue mainstream, but simple Google searches expose millions of proletarian audio-gear constructers (DIY’ers) working in shops, basements, and garages, scratch-building everything from turntables to tonearms to phono cartridges, to capacitors and vacuum tubes, to amplifiers, headphones, ribbon and electrostatic speakers.

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10+ mins  |
February 2021
MAKE MORE NOISE!
Stereophile

MAKE MORE NOISE!

The title of this set—4 CDs and a book—comes from British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst’s call to arms for women to fight for their rights: “You have to make more noise than anybody else,” said Pankhurst, who died in 1928.

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9 mins  |
February 2021
RECORD REVIEWS
Stereophile

RECORD REVIEWS

EDITOR’S PICK - RECORDING OF THE MONTH

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10+ mins  |
February 2021
Landscape into music
Stereophile

Landscape into music

It says something about the power of music that some individuals fading into dementia can still recognize the music they knew earlier in their lives. Not to denigrate new music, or music one hasn’t heard before, but our mental jukeboxes award top chart numbers to music that we have lived with over time. Those DJs making their playlists in our brain are the toughest of critics. They don’t care what anyone else might think, “Close to You” is staying in the rotation. Music and memory are linked.

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4 mins  |
February 2021
Some great new reissues
Stereophile

Some great new reissues

For jazz fans, a new batch of releases in Blue Note’s Tone Poet series—vinyl reissues remastered with care and cut from the original analog tapes—is the reason for celebration.

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4 mins  |
January 2021
PS Audio Stellar M1200
Stereophile

PS Audio Stellar M1200

MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
January 2021
McIntosh MAC7200
Stereophile

McIntosh MAC7200

STEREO RECEIVER

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10+ mins  |
January 2021
Marantz Model 30
Stereophile

Marantz Model 30

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
January 2021
KEF LS50 Meta LOUDSPEAKER
Stereophile

KEF LS50 Meta LOUDSPEAKER

LOUDSPEAKER

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10+ mins  |
January 2021
Cambridge Audio CXA81
Stereophile

Cambridge Audio CXA81

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

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10+ mins  |
January 2021
BOWIE, CURATED
Stereophile

BOWIE, CURATED

FIVE YEARS AFTER THE ICON’S PASSING, A FAN REVIEWS THE POSTHUMOUS RELEASES

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10 mins  |
January 2021