Entertainment
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 |
June 2025
Stereophile
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
Jamming with cans
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Boulder 1151
MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER
9 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
FOLLOW-UP
Following Kalman Rubinson’s review and John Atkinson's testing, which were published in the April 2025 issue, the Charcoal Black Technics SC-CX700 streaming amplified speaker system was shipped to me.1 I checked out some of the features Kal described, dug into the underlying tech with Technics's Bill Voss, and spent a few dozen hours listening, especially to the system's phono circuit.
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Songs of Innocence and Experience
Much of the coverage of the passing of Marianne Faithfull has focused on her private life rather than her music. That is understandable—yet it's also regrettable because it misses the important fact that for 60 years, Faithfull produced an impressive catalog of music, releasing 21 solo studio albums plus collaborations, compilations, and live recordings.
4 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Amphion Krypton3X
LOUDSPEAKER
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
SPIN DOCTOR
The Garrard 301 in a new light
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
BRILLIANT CORNERS
What was old is new again
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
Fezz Equinox
D/A PROCESSOR
10+ min |
June 2025
Stereophile
On cables
Underpinning a discussion about the merits of potentially costly specialist audio cables is an obvious question: Why do we need them? Doesn't almost all wire conduct audio signals with negligible distortion and very little loss of power?
9 min |
June 2025
Stereophile
T+A Solitaire T
BLUETOOTH/WIRED HEADPHONES
10+ min |
May 2025
Stereophile
Canton Reference 5
Canton Elektronik GmbH is a family-owned manufacturer of loudspeakers based in Weilrod, Germany. Founded in 1972—the name is from Latin and German: “Can” from the Latin “cantare,” “to sing”; “Ton” from the German for “sound”—Canton is now well past its 50th anniversary. The largest manufacturer of perfectionist speakers in Germany, Canton is still based in the small township where it began, with manufacturing facilities in the Czech Republic.
10+ min |