Technology
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 |
May 2025
Stereophile
AURAL ROBERT
Staying up on what's new in music ain't easy these days, in a world short on new record stores and long on websites, social media blather, and celebrity. Asked what he listens to when he's not writing music, fast-talking septuagenarian Ray Mason exudes a teenager's eager urgency.
4 min |
May 2025
Stereophile
JAMES FARBER
ASK THE AVERAGE JAZZ-LOVING AUDIOPHILE TO LIST HIS FAVORITE RECORDING ENGINEERS, AND SUCH ICONS AS RUDY VAN GELDER, ROY DUNANN, AND FRED PLAUT WOULD TOP THEIR LISTS. BUT IF YOU ASKED A HANDFUL OF CURRENT AND RECENT NEW YORK CITY JAZZ MUSICIANS TO CITE THEIR FAVORITES, ONE NAME WOULD LEAP TO THE FRONT OF THE PACK: JAMES ALLEN FARBER.
10+ min |
May 2025
Stereophile
Ayre Acoustics KX-8
PREAMPLIFIER - For the past decade or so, I haven't been using a preamplifier. The D/A processors I have been using all have volume controls, so I have been feeding their outputs directly to the power amplifiers.
10 min |
May 2025
Stereophile
Innuos ZENith Next-Gen
STREAMER-SERVER
10+ min |
May 2025
Stereophile
SPIN DOCTOR
Connected-Fidelity TT Hub Turntable and AFI FLAT.DUO record flattener and relaxer.
10+ min |
May 2025
Stereophile
dCS Varèse Music System
JASON VICTOR SERINUS - D/A PROCESSOR
6 min |
May 2025
Stereophile
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
Falcon and Lyra
10+ min |
May 2025
Stereophile
BRILLIANT CORNERS
Racks, cleaners, cables, resonators
10+ min |
May 2025
Stereophile
Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor
Let's get this out of the way: The BMR Monitor may be a monitor, but it isn't a bookshelf or desktop speaker any more than a yacht is a dinghy.
10+ min |
April 2025
Stereophile
Technics SC-CX700 ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER
The usual Specifications box (below) is a nuts-and-bolts listing of the electrical and physical properties of the Technics SC-CX700 loudspeaker, who made it and where, and a widely varying amount of information about their electrical and acoustical performance. The information comes from the included literature, available downloads, and whatever I could find on the manufacturer's website.
10+ min |
April 2025
Stereophile
Youth movement
Paul Klipsch was a genius,” Roy Delgado told me recently, with the sound of genuine amazement in his voice. “Me, I’m just a tinkerer.”
10+ min |
April 2025
Stereophile
The Loricraft PRC6i record cleaning machine and the WallySkater v2.1 Pro
In my last Spin Doctor column, I gave an overview of my experiences cleaning records over the last 50-plus years and the advances in record cleaning technology over that time. My review of the HumminGuru NOVA ultrasonic record cleaner focused on that increasingly popular approach to record cleaning, using ultrasonic cavitation instead of scrubbing the record with a brush. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in that half-century of playing around with audio gear, it’s that it can be a mistake to embrace a new technology just because of its newness, dismissing what came before as obsolete. The vinyl record itself is a good example of a technology discarded as obsolete, then embraced again by new (and old) generations. You can add vacuum-tube amplifiers, analog tape, and much else in our hobby to that list.
10+ min |
April 2025
Stereophile
Wattson Audio Madison LE Streamer
After it was delivered, I weighed the box containing Wattson Audio's DAC-equipped Madison LE Streamer on my bathroom scale.
10 min |
April 2025
Stereophile
Grimm Audio LS1c ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM
It's not unusual for audiophiles to have fond childhood recollections of the old family stereo, but Eelco Grimm's memory of his dad's audio system probably stands alone.
10+ min |
April 2025
Stereophile
Cambridge EXN100 STREAMING D/A PROCESSOR
Each soloist seemed to pop out to the front, between the two speakers (of course), their life force emerging over decades, grooves, and digital bits.
9 min |