CATEGORIES

Accuphase DG-68

DIGITAL VOICING EQUALIZER

A WallyTool setup update

ANALOG CORNER

500 ISSUES AND COUNTING

STEREOPHILE REACHES A PUBLISHING MILESTONE.

Kind of great

REVINYLIZATION

Dynaudio Confidence 30

LOUDSPEAKER

Stealth and nuance

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

SVS 3000 Micro

SUBWOOFER

BRYCE DESSNER

At a time of solitude, the guitarist and composer focused on connecting.

Thorens TD 124 DD

RECORD PLAYER

Verity Audio Montsalvat DAC/PRE

D/A PROCESSOR

PAT METHENY

FROM HIS PLACE

Vincent Audio SV-737

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

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.

Michi by Rotel M8

MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

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).

Line Magnetic LM-845IA

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

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.

Esoteric Grandioso C1X

LINE PREAMPLIFIER

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.

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.

NAD C 298

POWER AMPLIFIER

ELAC Alchemy DPA-2

POWER AMPLIFIER

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

Marten Parker Trio Diamond

LOUDSPEAKER

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.

Clearaudio Concept Active Wood

TURNTABLE

Focal Aria K2 936

LOUDSPEAKER

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.

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.

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.