Stereophile Apr-14

Bully for you “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve?”—Lauren Bacall, To Have and Have Not, 1944 Yesterday, I played a minor role in a dustup on Facebook. It began when a fellow journalist posted a controversial quote from a veteran manufacturer known for generating same. The bait proved irresistible, and a long line of audio mavens, myself included, swam around the hook for an hour or so. The manufacturer himself also waded in, and before the fight was over, he’d made a show of demanding the home address of one of his antagonists, thus raising the manly specter of bodily harm. If there were any women in the audience, I’m sure they were impressed. Perhaps because the manufacturer in question is a retiree of considerably less-than-Hemsworthian stature, the…

As we listen, so we are Editor: I read Jason Victor Serinus’s essay in February (“As We See It,” p.3), and have to say something I very rarely say: I agree with everything he wrote. Although his main point was that how we listen to music affects our social interactions, he also made a statement that I believe describes one of the biggest problems facing society today: “The dichotomy between what is best for the collective good and the desire for personal gain threatens our very existence.” This dichotomy prevents our politicians from acting like public servants and causes them to act more like greedy, nearsighted buffoons. It permeates not only politics but also medicine, business, the law, and almost everything else. I wish I could offer a solution, but…

THE WEB John Atkinson This issue includes the latest update of Stereophile’s popular “Recommended Components” listing, starting on p.58 and running for 35 informationpacked pages. Even then, however, we did not have space this month for all the product categories. The full version of the 2014 “Recommended Components” can be found on the magazine’s website, www.stereophile.com; as well as everything in this issue, it includes: Subwoofers; Phono Accessories; Room Acoustics Treatments; Stands, Spikes, Feet, & Racks; FM Tuners & Antennae; Recording Equipment; Signal Processors; Miscellaneous Accessories; Books & Computer Software; Interconnects; Loudspeaker Cables; and Digital Interconnects. UK: SALISBURY Paul Messenger Naim Audio is good at keeping secrets. Though a loyal customer for nearly 40 years, I was as surprised as any by the trade-only preview, at the 2014 Consumer Electronics…

Musical Fidelity takesa 90° turn They can’t sound very good—they’re not big enough. As we all know, in hi-fi, big products mean big performance. Musical Fidelity’s V90 series can’t be any good. They don’t cost enough. With your golden ears, you must pay through the nose. The V90 components turn all this around. They are tiny. Inexpensive. Beautifully built. Your friends will laugh when you turn on your DAC. Or phono preamp. Or Bluetooth receiver (the V90 series now includes the V90-BLU). But, of course, audiophiles must forgo the pleasures of Bluetooth. Too easy. Too simple. Too much free music from thousands of sources around the globe. I’ve been enjoying the V models since Musical Fidelity’s founder and CEO, Antony Michaelson, introduced them four years ago. The V-DACII and V-CANII…

Why, in 20145, m does vinyl continue to grow? Vinyl sales in America rose 30% in 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan, whch keeps tally of recorded media sales. Because Nielsen SoundScan only skims the surface of the record retailing picture, missing considerable “nook and cranny” sales, the real number is probably far greater. The SoundScan numbers also omit sales of used vinyl, which are considerable. By the time you read this, I will have posted on Analogplanet.com worldwide record-pressing totals, from information I’ve obtained direct from the pressing plants. These plants press only as many LPs as they’ve contracted for—and those orders are for the numbers the record labels estimate they can sell. Because labels tend to be conservative in these matters, I think the number of actual records pressed…

Record Doctor Redux “Perhaps we can shed some light on your problem in a new segment exploring pre-adolescent turmoil. I call it . . . ‘Choices.’”—Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons “For us, unlike other manufacturers, there are not degrees of clean. Our entry-level machine is as good as our top of our line when it comes to cleaning records; in between, it’s just a matter of choices.” Thus spoke Jonathan Monks, who inherited from his father, the late Keith Monks, an audiomanufacturing legacy built upon the world’s first commercially produced record-cleaning machine. Our conversation was prompted by last year’s introduction of the discOveryOne ($2495), the most affordable record-cleaning machine yet from Keith Monks Audio Works. The new model achieves this level of thrift in two ways: Rather than being fitted with…