CATEGORIES

Of Headphones To Come

I figured it was coming, but it wasn’t until just after I’d returned from the Audio Engineering Society’s 2016 International Conference on Headphone Technology1— held last August in Aalborg, Denmark—and was writing up my report and summary on the event for InnerFidel ity.com2 that I knew for sure: Headphones are about to change . . . a lot.

Music Hall Audio MMF-7.3

Turntable

Power Tripping

Some of our readers seem to believe that the essence of high-quality audio is disclosed primarily by science, and not by dreamy, bodice-ripping adventures that take place on plush carpets behind closed doors.

Analog Corner

CH Precision’s P1 phono preamplifier, which I wrote about in the April 2017 issue, is not going back to its manufacturer.

The Permanent Jazz Festival

The Rise of Europe and the Future of Jazz.

Bowers & Wilkins 805 D3

I have had a long relationship with Bowers & Wilkins.

Aerial Acoustics 5T

Long-lived loudspeaker models are rare.

The Tight Lines Project

WE LAST RELEASED A RECORDING ON THE STEREOPHILE LABEL SIX YEARS AGO—A JAZZ ALBUM FEATURING ATTENTION SCREEN, THE LATE BOB REINA’S FREE-JAZZ ENSEMBLE. THIS DRY SPELL WAS MAINLY DUE TO THE INCREASING DEMANDS MADE ON OUR EDITORIAL TEAM’S TIME BY SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE MAGAZINE’S WEBSITE, BUT ALSO BY JOHN ATKINSON’S RECORDING ACTIVITIES WITH THE PORTLAND STATE CHAMBER CHOIR, WHO ISSUE THEIR RECORDINGS ON THEIR OWN LABEL. NEVERTHELESS, WE’VE BEEN KEEPING OUR EYES AND EARS OPEN FOR SUITABLE OPPORTUNITIES.

The Virtues of Vintage

They don’t make ’em like they used to.

Bel Canto Design e. One REF600M- Monoblock Power Amplifier

Has it really been more than seven years since I reviewed Bel Canto’s REF1000M monoblock?1

Analog Corner

THIS ISSUE: Zesto’s Andros Téssera phono preamp and Acoustic Signature’s revised Ascona turntable and TA-9000 tonearm.

Follow-Up

The words right and wrong and good and bad make me uncomfortable. Assigning virtue or value is against my religion. And thinking that I know the best way to design a loudspeaker, amplifier, or record player would only prove that I’m a conceited old fool. Therefore . . .

Jason Victor Serinus - Audionet Max

Monoblock Power Amplifier

New Age.

Having Survived Cancer And New Age, The Solo Pianist Climbs Aboard His Carousel

Enough With The Hobby Already

As We See It.

MQA, DRM, And Other Four-letter Words

MQA, DRM, And Other Four-letter Words

PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium

Let us pretend . . . you have a pair of loudspeakers that have proven themselves to sound articulate and musically responsive in your room, without excess boom, bloom, or frail leanness.

NAD Masters Series M50.2

Back in May 2014, I reviewed NAD’s Masters Series M50 Digital Music Player ($2499) and M52 Digital Music Vault ($1999 with 2TB storage). 1 At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, NAD announced the M50.2, which is almost identical to the original M50 but now incorporates two 2TB hard disks, arranged as a 2TB RAID array, to ensure data integrity, and adds TosLink and coaxial digital inputs, Bluetooth with aptX for streaming music from a smartphone or tablet, and two single-ended analog inputs—all for $3999, or $499 less than the combined cost of the two earlier products.

As We See It - Not-So-Giant Steps

I’m a thirty-year-old puppy doing what I’m told And I’m told there’s no more coal for the older engines,” —ANDY PARTRIDGE,

as we see it

steve guttenberg's 116th dream.

Moon by Simaudio Evolution 780D D/A PROCESSOR.

Moon by Simaudio Evolution 780D D/A PROCESSOR.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Again!)

New Audiophile Reissues Burnish a Proud Legacy.

Listening

There was a fight. And when the fight took a turn for the worse and things began being broken and thrown, it was time to leave. Not later. Not soon. Now.

Gramophone Dreams

As much as I delight in pagan dreams of sweetly perfumed garden nymphs, I’m embarrassed to admit that my mind also drifts in pleasant reveries whenever I hear the words research and development in the same sentence.

Auralic Altair

D/A Processor.

Both Sides Now

An Interview With Record Producer Joe Harley, of Audioquest and Music Matters Jazz 

As We See It

THIS ISSUE: Are audiophiles ignoring the most affordable means of achieving true high-end sound?

Listening

THIS ISSUE: A belt-drive turntable with a skeletal plinth, an acrylic platter, and an apparently lowish-torque DC motor. From Serbia.

Record Reviews

The blues, that wonderful basis of so much American popular music, has for many listeners grown a bit stale and old-fashioned. It’s not much of a draw outside bar bands, and other than Alligator Records and APO Records, most of the biggest blues labels have folded or gone dormant. Losing many of the music’s first- and secondgeneration practitioners hasn’t helped.

Analog Corner - Notes From The Road

At audio events held by the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, I’m usually called on to speechify about one thing or another, or to roast an honoree at one of the Society’s December Galas.1 But at last spring’s Los Angeles Audio Show,2 Bob Levi, the Society’s president, quipped, “This is one awards dinner where you won’t have to entertain—so relax and enjoy!”