Stereophile May-14

THIS ISSUE: The one-size-fits-all-music loudspeaker has yet to be designed. New Sensations Here’s what I’ve learned in my 35 years in the High End, first as a hi-fi salesman and then as a full-time reviewer and blogger: No hi-fi, no matter how expensive or exalted, will ever deliver the holy grail. While there have been considerable advances over the years, I can cite two 50+-year-old loudspeakers—Quad ESL electrostatics and Klipsch’s big horns—whose transparency and dynamic range, respectively, blow away those of many contemporary high-end speakers. The very best of today’s speakers, electronics, and source components don’t zero in on a single perfected sound indistinguishable from the experience of being in the same room as the musicians—no, every one of them sounds different from all the rest. I want to experience…

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR Tasteless but funny Editor: Even Hitler had an opinion on audio cables: www.youtube.com/watch?v= 3UQDTZcpsDE. —John Mayberry emmaco@emmaco.com Filling a need Editor: Stereophile is a publication devoted to informing its readers of the ever-changing world of audio playback. It accomplishes this task by employing a number of reviewer writers with a range of interests and cultural backgrounds. Sam Tellig is now teaching us about the value of Internet radio, whereas a while back he was trying out new DACs to improve the sound of his CDs. Stephen Mejias has a thing about cables, but are expensive interconnects really necessary if the interconnect is very short? I’ll never forget Stephen’s story about how his girlfriends went to a party where he was the DJ: very charming. And all…

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS UK: THE AUDIO MARKET Paul Messenger Clarity Alliance, the UK’s trade organization that brings together manufacturers and British specialist hi-fi retailers, held its annual formal get-together in the spring. As usual, the weather was disgusting (this year mild, but very wet), but the trip was, also as usual, worthwhile—perhaps more for the ancillary presentations than for the industry politics. Nick Simon and Lucy Twist, from the market-research organization GfK, provided a useful statistical overview of the UK and European marketplaces. The first piece of good news is that general consumer confidence is improving along with the general economic situation, as fear of unemployment recedes. However, that improvement is not yet reflected in the consumer-electronics sector: 2013 showed a 9% decline in sales value compared with 2012.…

THIS ISSUE: Sam catches up with Croft, KEF, and Dayton Audio’s Sola Bluetooth speaker. Don’t brush Bluetooth aside! Procter & Gamble is about to introduce the Oral-B SmartSeries electric toothbrushes. They will connect, via Bluetooth, with a smartphone app to help you brush the teeth that most need brushing. The app will monitor your brushing progress in real time and nudge you when it’s time to move on. Expect it to go for around $250—about the cost of filling two cavities. Expect to spend two minutes brushing with your Bluetoothbrush. More Bluetooth devices are arriving left and right, including Bluetooth audio receivers and speakers—like the Dayton Audio Sola wireless speaker, to which I’m listening in my office as I type. Meanwhile, let’s catch up with Croft and KEF. Croft Phono…

THIS ISSUE: Mikey reflects on how LP grooves are cut and sets up VPI’s new direct-drive turntable. VPI Does Direct Drive From the perspective of today’s complex, high-tech world, a turntable seems to be a relatively simple, almost primitive device that uses 19th-century technology to make a platter rotate on a bearing at a specific speed. From afar, a spinning platter is a spinning platter, and if a tonearm and cartridge can travel without a hiccup from lead-in to lead-out groove, well, mission accomplished. But if it’s that simple, why do all turntables sound different from one another? Can we all agree that they do? That we don’t need to “prove” this with double-blind A/B/X testing? Good. Then I’ll proceed. Although you can get sound from an LP by rotating…

THIS ISSUE: Art steps up the signal from his movingcoil phono cartridge with two very different devices. Religion in Reverse Except for a few titles I’ve combined with the ones in my listening room, and a few others that I intend to sell, the record collection I bought last year remains in three rows of boxes on the floor of our guest room. Because that room is spacious and comfortable, and equipped with a small refrigerator and a flat-screen TV, it is also the place where my 16-year-old daughter and her friends have their slumber parties and Dr. Who marathons. Thus, as you can imagine, I must sometimes explain to our young guests the Tao of collecting records. It’s like explaining religion in reverse: “These thousands of LPs—the ones that…