Our work, though, is partly based on shared principles. As in reviewing wine, for example, our own tastes matter-a lot-but certain universal (though subjective) principles matter, too. This fact becomes especially interesting in follow-up reviews, in which shared principles hold even as personal preferences collide.
As long as it's done by a different reviewer, a follow-up review always adds one new thing: another reviewer's perspective. Usually there are other differences, too: a different reviewing system, for example, and a different room. With complex products-including the CH Precision M1.1 power amplifier, which I'm reviewing here-it may be used in a completely different way. A re-review may result in some new sonic insight-a new perspective on how the product sounds, something the original reviewer overlooked.
Sometimes there's an ulterior motive for doing a follow-up review-something other than a desire to present a different perspective. That is the case here. The CH Precision M1.1 power amplifier was first reviewed in our July 2019 issue.² It is now 2024, more than four years later, and the M1.1, despite its merits and despite still being a current product, has fallen off our Recommended Components list.
Assuming the product didn't somehow get worse over the last four years and that the state of the art of audio amplification hasn't lately advanced very fast, the M1.1 belongs on the list. To be confident, though, a Stereophile writer must listen to it again.
That onerous task fell to me.³ Michael Fremer wrote that original review, in the context of a different system, and he used the amplifier differently. His speakers were very similar: He reviewed the M1.1 with the Wilson Alexx.
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Denne historien er fra March 2024-utgaven av Stereophile.
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German kitchens, Japanese amps, and Afropop gems
BRILLIANT CORNERS - I have a day job at a museum. One of my favorite things about working there is taking the elevator from my office down to one of the floors open to the public; I walk into the galleries through a discreet panel in the wall. This makes me feel like I'm in one of those horror-movie manors with a tunnel concealed behind a bookshelf. Sometimes I startle people, which I kind of enjoy.
EDITOR'S PICK - RECORDING OF THE MONTH
The record business was awash in money and power. Vinyl LPs were still five bucks, and while the pressings could be suspect, the music-buying public still snapped them up en masse.
The Butthole Surfers wipe out
REVINYLIZATION - Music's lunatic fringe drifts further out every hour. As it should. In this century, with computers playing an ever-larger role, music continues to fragment and become infinitely more varied. This splintering is either the essence of what keeps it relevant as an art form or something profoundly disturbing, to be hated and feared.
You're only lonely
AURAL ROBERT - The least surprising story in music today is the inevitable passing of irreplaceable talent. Tenor saxophonist Benny Golson died at age 95 the day I finished this salute to another fallen star, Southern California singer/songwriter John David \"JD\" Souther.
PS Audio Aspen FR5 - LOUDSPEAKER
I remember the first PS Audio product: a simple phono stage. It was so simple - a passive RIAA eq filter flanked by a pair of primitive op-amps - that when the schematic was made public, I built one myself; I was in the midst of my DIY years. I thought it was, to use a word from that time, nifty.
TEAC UD-701N - STREAMING PREAMP, D/A CONVERTER
In Gramophone Dreams #88, I described the sound of TEAC's VRDS-701T CD transport as \"dense and precise in a way I had never previously heard from digital.\" I went on to explain, \"by dense, I mean there was a tangible corporeality effected by seemingly infinite quantities of small, tightly packed molecules of musical information.\"
Sonus faber Sonetto V G2 - LOUDSPEAKER
Here's a hard truth: A written review of a full-sized speaker any speaker, really-is, at best, semi-useful. We all listen differently, we have different musical tastes, our system electronics are different, and our listening rooms vary a lot. You will gain a general picture of a speaker's capabilities and foibles from John Atkinson's measurements, and I can tell you how the speakers sound to me, in my room. But that's it. You need to hear them for yourself before making a buying decision. The best I can do is tell you how my music brain felt when the speakers were in my house and making music.
STEREOPHILE'S 33RD ANNUAL - PRODUCT OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024
When Stereophile's Product of the Year Awards were first published, in 1992, we decided that unlike some other publications and their awards schemes, we would keep the number of categories to a minimum. That way, we would avoid what the late Art Dudley once described as the \"every child in the class gets a prize\" syndrome.
Moon 861 - POWER AMPLIFIER
It is unusual to begin a review with a detailed discussion of setup. But setup protocol for the Moon 861 power amplifier ($22,000 each), the top-level amplifier in the North Collection from Moon, which I reviewed bridged in mono, proved crucial to its sound.
Mobile Fidelity, PrimaLuna, and First Watt redux
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS - It's important for readers to remember that I've spent my adult life as an artist and mechanic. Making things. Working as a tradesperson during the day then at an easel or workbench at night.
