Technology
Stereophile
Living Sounds Audio Discovery Warp 1 - POWER AMPLIFIER
It takes a while for audio-related technologies to mature. Tubed amplifiers were invented by Lee de Forest in the nineteen-teens, but while there are still some adherents of early high-distortion triode designs, the age of mainstream high-fidelity amplification dawned with higher-power/lower-distortion amplifiers developed by Williamson and McIntosh followed by the Ultralinear take on the Williamson concept.
10+ min |
July 2023
Stereophile
Miyajima Laboratory Wo-1 - PREAMPLIFIER
A phenomenon formerly unique to Japan, which in recent years has been emulated in cities around the world, is the jazz café (known as jazz kissa in Japan), where salarymen can find respite from their hectic lives, loosen their ties, and enjoy hi-fi jazz over coffee or a drink.'
7 min |
July 2023
Stereophile
Antipodes Oladra - SERVER/STREAMER/RECLOCKER
Servers, servers, servers. How we who embrace digital hi-fi love them for their potential to make files and streams sound better (more alive, vital, musical, moving, transparent) than music served from a computer.
10+ min |
July 2023
Stereophile
Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 - LOUDSPEAKER
Over a lifetime of involvement in audio, I have had stand-mount speakers-bookshelf speakers, as they were called back then-only twice.
8 min |
July 2023
Stereophile
HiFi Rose RS520 - STREAMING INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
My first car was a decrepit, mustard-yellow Peugeot 304 with a navy hood. The blue hue wasn't a fashion statement; after an accident, the previous owner had gone to a salvage yard where only a blue replacement could be procured.
10+ min |
July 2023
Stereophile
SPIN DOCTOR - Swiss precision
In 1928, Swiss engineer and inventor Jean-Léon Reutter created a clock that could run for years without human interaction or any type of external power source. The Atmos Clock required no AC power, batteries, solar panels, or hand-winding. It was able to wind itself by leveraging subtle changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature.
10+ min |
July 2023
Stereophile
BRILLIANT CORNERS - Come Hell or High Water
New York is an ugly city, a dirty city,\" John Steinbeck wrote in 1953. \"But there is one thing about it-once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.\" Decades later, the novelist's insight about this appalling, incomparable city still feels true.
10+ min |
July 2023
Stereophile
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS - An affordable purist amplifier with punch
It was a cold March-in-Brooklyn morning. Clouds had been shedding wintery mix since daybreak. By 9am, birds were flash-mobbing my window, demanding suet. But I was frozen-unable to pull my mind loose from the grave flowings of American composer Ned Rorem's Book of Hours, as performed by Les Connivences Sonores on the album Musikalische Perlen (24/48 FLAC, Ars Produktion/Qobuz). The sounds in my room were sensuous and mesmerizing, and I needed to float in their mysterious energy as long as I could.
10+ min |
July 2023
Stereophile
AVM Inspiration CS 2.3 - CD RECEIVER
In the 1960s, my dad gave me a Panasonic receiver with two cube speakers, just in time for the advent of FM stereo radio in the San Francisco Bay Area.
10+ min |
June 2023
Stereophile
Dan D'Agostino Momentum M400 MxV - MONO AMPLIFIER
The Momentum M400 MxV Mono amplifier ($79,500/pair)¹ is the latest iteration of Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems' debut amplifier of 2011, the Momentum Mono amplifier.
10+ min |
June 2023
Stereophile
VPI Avenger Direct - TURNTABLE
Founded in 1978, VPI Industries appears to be one of the most successful turntable manufacturers in the world-certainly in the US.
10+ min |
June 2023
Stereophile
PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream MK2 - D/A PROCESSOR
When Art Dudley reviewed the original PS Audio Perfect Wave DirectStream D/A processor in Stereophile's September 2014 issue, he very much liked what he heard.
10 min |
June 2023
Stereophile
TAD CE1TX - LOUDSPEAKER
The most money I've ever spent on a pair of loudspeakers was back in the early 1990s, when I bought a pair of used TAD TH-4001 wooden horns and their associated TD-4001 compression drivers.
10+ min |
June 2023
Stereophile
SPIN DOCTOR
Early hi-fi adventures, and going back to mono.
7 min |
June 2023
Stereophile
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS - Stick vs automatic
I wish that all who love LP playback as much as I do could hear a Thorens TD 124 or Garrard 301 or EMT 930 in their systems, but those products are subject to the vagaries of supply and demand: They are rare and pricey.—ART DUDLEY
6 min |
June 2023
Stereophile
MY BACK PAGES
A masterpiece as it is painted
4 min |
May 2023
Stereophile
RE-TALES
Goodbye to gatekeeping
4 min |
May 2023
Stereophile
REVINYLIZATION
In soul's kitchen with Jaws and the Queen
4 min |
May 2023
Stereophile
RABBIT HOLES
Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations from 1981
4 min |
May 2023
Stereophile
AURAL ROBERT
Bob Meets Burt
4 min |
May 2023
Stereophile
Arvus H2-4D
16-CHANNEL DIGITAL AUDIO RENDERER
10+ min |
May 2023
Stereophile
Mastersound Compact 845
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
10+ min |
May 2023
Stereophile
Moon by Simaudio Voice 22
LOUDSPEAKER
10+ min |
May 2023
Stereophile
Karan Acoustics Master Collection POWERa Mono
MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER
10+ min |
May 2023
Stereophile
BRILLIANT CORNERS
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something Blue
10+ min |
May 2023
Stereophile
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
Two at the Top
10+ min |
May 2023
Stereophile
THE BEATLES, REANIMATED
GILES MARTIN TALKS ABOUT THE BEATLES’ REMIXED, REINVENTED REVOLVER: SPECIAL EDITION
10+ min |
April 2023
Stereophile
Nessie Vinylcleaner ProPlus+, RECORD CLEANING MACHINE
I ’m a music lover first, not the most Type A of audiophiles. Sure, I clean my records, but I’m not obsessive about keeping them immaculate like my audiophile father is;1 he cleans each record ultrasonically before it lands on his turntable platter, writing the date of each record’s last bath and which cleaning machine he used on the outside of a fresh plastic inner sleeve before sliding the LP back inside.
9 min |
April 2023
Stereophile
Primare PRE35 Prisma STREAMING PREAMPLIFIER
Hygge might not be the first word that comes to mind when contemplating the Primare PRE35 Prisma preamplifier, but in Limhamn, Sweden, that is how Primare likes to describe their products.
10 min |
April 2023
Stereophile
NAD C 3050 LE, BLUOS STREAMING INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
Although NAD was founded in England in 1972 as New Acoustic Dimension, my introduction to the brand was in 1980. I bought an NAD 3020 integrated amplifier after hearing it successfully drive Acoustic Research’s current-hungry AR9 loudspeakers.
9 min |