CATEGORIES
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
Acelec Model One
LOUDSPEAKER
MY BACK PAGES
Five things I learned at hi-fi shows
RABBIT HOLES
Quincy Jones: An Appreciation in Five Albums
REVINYLIZATION
Little Feat’s evolution in two classic albums
AURAL ROBERT
Vince Mendoza’s learning laboratory
SAMARA JOY
THE STEREOPHILE INTERVIEW
SME Model 60
RECORD PLAYER
Raidho TD3.8
LOUDSPEAKER
RE-TALES - Succession
Many family-owned hi-fi companies have experienced generational leadership transitions over the last few years: Wilson Audio, Von Schweikert Audio, PS Audio, and VPI Industries, to name a few. In two of those cases, the founding father is still around. One of those is VPI Industries.
AURAL ROBERT - Elton's Magic Year
In 1973, Elton John and Bernie Taupin capped one of pop music's most epic periods of sustained creativity by writing, recording, and releasing the 10-track single disc Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player and the 17-track double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, both of which are now celebrating their 50th anniversary. As two of the strongest entries among the many classics that make 1972-73 the peak years for rock albums, both went #1 in the US and UK and arguably stand as the dual highpoints of John's recorded legacy.