CATEGORIES
A Love Supreme: Revinylization
Why is John Coltrane's A Love Supreme still so resonant nearly 60 years after it was recorded? Much to its credit, it's short (just over 30 minutes) and to the point.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN, A YEAR LATER
A YEAR AFTER HIS FIRST POSTPANDEMIC JAUNT, TOM CONRAD RETURNS TO EUROPE FOR-WHAT ELSE?-JAZZ.
Wilson Audio Specialties Lōkė: SUBWOOFER
Piece of cake, thought I. All I needed to do to review Wilson Audio Specialties' smallest active subwoofer, the Löke ($8950 each in standard finish), was describe how low a pair goes in my room and how cleanly they woof.
Naim Classic 200 Series NAP 250: POWER AMPLIFIER
For this modular audio component set-a review of the matching NSC 222 streamer preamp with a matching NPX 300 power supply is forthcoming-we first cover the standalone NAP 250 100Wpc stereo power amplifier, a new version of Naim's 200-series amplifier, now so extensively revised that it must be regarded as a new model.
Monitor Audio Platinum 300 3G
Loudspeakers from British manufacturer Monitor Audio have consistently received favorable reviews in Stereophile over the past decades.
McIntosh C12000: PREAMPLIFIER
As I was talking with an audio-retailer friend recently, he reached for a Rolls-Royce metaphor to describe the McIntosh brand. Expensive? Sure, but not as expensive as some boutique high-end products. Fast? Sure, but there are faster things-also bigger things, smaller things, wackier things, and cheaper things.
Focal Maestro Utopia Evo: LOUDSPEAKER
How do you know you're beyond help as a card-carrying audiophile? For me, it happened during a recent trip to Italy.
A new P3 on Rega's 50th: SPIN DOCTOR
When I think about landmark years in the history of British hi-fi, 1973 sticks out. Three companies got their start in the first half of that year that went on to become cornerstones of the British audio scene: Linn Products, Naim Audio, and Rega Research. That means they're all celebrating their 50th anniversaries in 2023.
A Clean, Good-Sounding Place: BRILLIANT CORNERS
In a scene from The Silence of the Lambs-a film that for all of its camp happens to be nearly perfect-FBI cadet Clarice Starling asks caged psycho-path Hannibal Lecter for help in figuring out a serial killer's motives. \"Do we seek out things to covet?\" Lecter responds, following Starling with his eyes as though she were his next meal. \"No,\" he continues, \"we begin by coveting what we see every day.\"
The EMT Experience: GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
If you've read any of my previous Dreams, you no doubt realize that I am an empiricist by trade-that I believe in the value of relaxed, mindful observation, especially if my solitary observances are independently corroborated by others.
REVINYLIZATION
Chronic jazz
AURAL ROBERT
Records for the New Land
Ayre VX-8
POWER AMPLIFIER
JBL 4329P
INTEGRATED LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM
Electrocompaniet AW 800 M
STEREO/MONOBLOCK POWER AMPLIFIER
SPIN DOCTOR
The Vertere DG-1S record player
BRILLIANT CORNERS
Dual-mono mahis
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
Laissez-faire listening
The curse of composition
Something has happened in jazz culture in the new millennium. There is more emphasis on original composition than ever before. There has been remarkably little discussion and analysis of this phenomenon, perhaps because many assume it is a positive development. Jazz, after all, prioritizes originality.
Munich from the back of the bus
If you're going to Germany to immerse yourself in big-city excitement-churning dance clubs, matterful contemporary art, visitors and food from around the world, and street life that goes on all night-you'll probably find it in Berlin. Though rents have been climbing and there's no shortage of dirty sidewalks and petty crime, the German capital remains one of the most youthful and vibrant cities in Europe, an art and culture center with large expatriate communities and endless things to do. For urban thrills on a smaller scale, you can make a case for Cologne and even Leipzig.
The Werewolf
If music reflects the life of the person who created it-if, for example, we can hear Mozart's inner turmoil in his operas-then Warren Zevon's song catalog is uncommonly revealing. Headless mercenaries, killer rapists, and yes, impeccably dressed werewolves with a taste for pina coladas are all part of the colorful world of WZ's twisted imagination and especially of his masterpiece, 1978's Excitable Boy.
Charles Mingus's Changes: The Complete 1970s Atlantic Studio Recordings
The standup bass genius and jazz force of nature Charles Mingus made his first album for Atlantic Records, Pithecanthropus Erectus, in 1956. Several of his most memorable musical masterpieces, including The Clown (1957), Blues and Roots (1960), and Oh Yeah (1962), followed as he intermittently returned to the label throughout the 1960s and early '70s.
ASTRUD GILBERTO, RIP
HER FIRST PROFESSIONAL RECORDING BECAME A CAREER DEFINING GLOBAL HIT, CHANGED THE CULTURE, AND HELPED MAKE BOSSA NOVA A WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON. BUT THERE'S A DARK SIDE TO THE SUCCESS OF \"THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA,\" WHICH FOLLOWED THE BRAZILIAN CHANTEUSE UNTIL HER RECENT DEATH.
RECORD REVIEWS
At 79, Pulitzer Prize winner and NEA Jazz Master Henry Threadgill is one of the last men standing among the founding fathers of the jazz avant-garde. Because his output of recordings is not voluminous, every new Threadgill release is an event. The Other One is more of an event than most because of its ambition (it is an album-length suite) and its scale: It introduces a new 12-piece ensemble.
Harbeth Super HL5plus XD - LOUDSPEAKER
What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits-the 1974 album by those San Jose yacht-rock sages the Doobie Brothers-could also describe an audiophile's life.
Mytek Brooklyn Bridge II Roon Core - STREAMER/SERVER/DAC
A useful way of thinking of this device is as a 21st century integrated preamp on steroids, where Roon (plus streaming services) is the new tuner, and a way to play records, with the possibility of endless future improvements via software updates.
MoFi Electronics SourcePoint 8 - LOUDSPEAKER
When I got these new speakers for review, they were so new that, at the time I unpacked them, no official user manual was included or posted on the manufacturer's website, and the promised matching stands didn't exist. Yet, I have the abiding feeling that I am getting to the party long after it has started. The Mobile Fidelity SourcePoint 8 is the newer, smaller sibling of the SourcePoint 10 reviewed by John Atkinson in Stereophile's February 2023 issue, with a follow-up by Ken Micallef in June.¹
Audio Research I/50 - INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
The first true high-end component I owned was an Audio Research SP-10. I reviewed this two-box, tubed preamplifier in the May 1984 issue of the English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review.
SPIN DOCTOR
Hallo München!
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
It's all about the source